


Perfect Synergy

by wanderingwanderlustwriter



Series: Synergy Saga [1]
Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Humor, Platonic Romance, Romance, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:11:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4108618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingwanderlustwriter/pseuds/wanderingwanderlustwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was energy, pure and simple. She could light your path or end you where you stood, with barely anything but a thought. Summoning lightning and leaving the world without power, as easy as breathing. Though, honestly, she'd rather smoke a joint and save the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"Every time the wind blows I think of her. I wonder if I could generate electricity off my yearning"_ \- Jarod Kintz

* * *

 

Most people in the world today will never experience something that they can't explain with logic. I'm glad I can truthfully say that I am not one of those people. I had the unique opportunity to work with the most dedicated and colorful, if not abnormal, characters I have ever had the pleasure to become acquainted with. On some level, these abnormal characters became my family. A family of screechers, of boys who can't seem to stay out of other peoples' business, of boys who can't always control themselves, of boys who quite enjoy hanging upside down from whatever they can. And of girls who can't decide who they are or where they belong and can't accept that they are most beautiful without all the gimmicks. Looking back at it now I realize that we were like any bunch of siblings, dysfunctional, loud, and neurotic when we were left all alone.

Even with how everything turned out I wouldn't change any moment of the few months we spent together for anything. Not even for the certainty that I would live. You just can't replace or ignore some things. I'm proud to say that our little renegade was, and still is, one of those experiences that will stick with me forever. Funny, looking back to the day I met what you could call the "parents" of our little family, I nearly forgot how I... Well, it's sort of hard to explain. Let me just tell you the whole story of how I met the X-Men.

I was like any other girl in Maine during the Cold War. Bomb shelters were a place I called home, I went to an all girl boarding school, I had an overbearing mother who on several occasions attempted to dress me up in billowy gowns and enter me in beauty pageants, I had five brothers who had definitely influenced my tomboy personality over the years. And I had a secret that I couldn't tell anyone. As I sat in the courtyard of my pompous school, with my only friend to witness anything I did, I decided to practice my 'secret'. Much to my friends distaste.

"Maxine! Cut that out, it's not normal!" She pleaded, motioning to what I was doing with my fingers with a desperate look.

The action in and of itself wasn't out of the ordinary; I was simply rubbing the pads of my index and my middle finger against the pad of my thumb. No, the sparks that were jumping from my skin was what she was talking about. Ever since I was eight, possibly nine, I had been able to generate small electrical currents with my fingers. With more practice I learned that if I rubbed my fingers together for a long period of time I could charge more energy and that I could seemingly 'steal' electricity from nearby electrical sources. Lights, machinery, cars, you name it. I found my gift to be extremely cool, but not Julie, the nervous girl edging away from me. Sometimes I regretted telling her about it, other times I'm glad I had someone to at least try and hinder me from my devious tendencies. Extra emphasis on _try_.

I smiled at her just then. "It's not that weird, Jules. I'm like one of those guys from carnivals that can shallow fire. Just a little something I can use as an icebreaker in any awkward conversation." In part, this was true. Of the few 'relationships' I've been in they all started with me showing the boys involved a magic trick. They were always amazed, without fail, and then when we kissed there was always that... spark. I smirked just thinking about it.

My friend didn't look convinced. "B-but that's not a trick! You can do that all on your own, no smoke and mirrors involved!"

I rolled my eyes and continued to charge my fingers. No harm had come from my little parlor trick, and I secretly hoped that it never would. Finally, after producing enough energy to cause our hair to stick on end, Jules became too fed up with my oddness.

"It's late. I'm going to bed." She grabbed her books with an adamant tone, made sure her skirt was in place, and ran towards the dormitories. With one last sad smile to her odd friend, Jules was gone.

I was completely and utterly alone. My only company was the sparks in my hand and the light post next to me. I looked up at the bright light with an anxious feeling in my stomach. How long had it been since I had a cigarette? Too long. I reached behind the bench I was sitting at, grabbed my paperboy bag, dug my hand into a secret compartment I sewed into the lining, and pulled out my pack of Camels and my trusty military zippo from World War II. I plucked one of the white treasures from its spot in the carton, placed it between my lips as I lit it, and took a nice long drag. Screw people telling me that they were bad for me, there was no proof of that. They tasted good and they made me feel good. I puffed out three perfect rings before exhaling the rest of the smoke. That's when I felt it. The distinct sensation of a pair of eyes boring into the back of your head. My back went rigid. For the first time in my life, I wished Headmistress Saffron was the one standing behind me, busting me for smoking on school grounds again. But the feeling in my stomach told me that I wouldn't be graced with that pleasure. Slowly, I turned around. There was not one person watching me, but two, both men, and both plenty of years older than me. One, who was considerably taller than the other, was propped up against a tree while the other just stood ten feet in front of me with a smile on his face. I felt the electricity beginning to charge itself within me, giving me a lethal weapon if I needed one. _Never be caught off guard_. I reminded myself.

"Good evening, my name is Charles Xavier." The man closest to me said calmly. Charles was of an average size, unlike his companion, but they both had brown hair and blue eyes. He walked towards me with his hand extended. I didn't trust it. I jumped back off the bench and into the path leading to the main building of the school. My cigarette fell from my lips in the process, deciding it was a lost cause I crushed it underneath the heel of my boot. Charles's companion scoffed from the tree he was leaning against.

_Who are these guys?_ Was the first thing I thought to myself. _They dress like they're the freaking Mafia, but they stalk girls in the courtyards of this cruddy rundown school?_

The smaller one, Charles, chuckled. "We're not with the Mafia. I assure you, you have nothing to fear from Erik or myself. We simply came here to ask you a few questions." He offered me a kind smile but I still didn't trust him. He was assuring me of things I hadn't even spoken aloud! If anything that just made me distrust him more.

His companion, who I guessed to be Erik, groaned from his spot against the tree. "Charles, I'm tired of this and would like to get back to D.C. before dawn breaks. Can we please hurry this along?"

"Yes, as soon as Maxine here stops charging herself with enough electricity to power a small town." Charles said calmly to his friend.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shocked by what Charles had just said. How could he have possibly known what I was doing? Or my name for that matter?

' _Because, dear Maxine, I can read your mind_.' A voice echoed in my head. For a brief moment I was completely dumbfounded by the voice that was not my own whispering things inside my head. Ironically, it sounded familiar. I looked around to see if anyone had joined us because it was clear that no one uttered a word past closed lips. That's when my eyes settled back on Charles who had two fingers placed on his temple. I cracked an unsure smile as he waved a bit with the fingers not touching his head. _Is this guy a freak show like me?_

' _I am, indeed. Thought I wouldn't quite call what we can do something so simple as a carnival trick._ ' He chuckled inside my mind. ' _Do you trust me enough to dispel the energy you have gathered and to stop coming up with ridiculous theories how Erik and I are sexual predators or anything of the sort?_ ' Charles's voice asked.

If he had known about the sexual predator theory then he probably could delve deeper into my mind and I did not like the thought of that. I gave a small nod. ' _As long as your friend stays where he is and you don't go searching through my head anymore. Agreed?_ '

In front of me, Charles smiled and clapped his hands together. "Agreed." He said aloud, removing his fingers from his temple, "Seeing as Erik is extremely tired after our long day I'm going to cut right to it, shall we? You wondered if I was different," _hadn't quite said different but I'll give you that_ , "and I assured you that I am, indeed, different. There are several people on this planet like us, people who possess extraordinary gifts. Some use their powers for good, and others for rather nefarious purposes. That is why Erik and I have sought you out. We're putting together a team of people who will use their powers for good in hopes that we can stop a man from starting World War III and we were wondering if you would help us."

"Well that's quite a bit of information to wrap my head around..." I admitted truthfully. Just a minute ago I had thought these two guys were rapists or something, and now they're asking me to join a team of people with extraordinary powers to help stop a man from starting World War III? A girl has the right to be taken aback. I sat back down on the bench as I felt my knees beginning to give out. Charles took the seat beside me. He didn't look expectant or anything. It seemed as if he genuinely cared about me.

Erik groaned again. "Just say yes or tell us to fuck off like the last guy did." His crude statement got him a small glare from Charles, but he quickly looked back at me.

"You need to understand that you can tell no one about this, not your parents, not your friends, absolutely no one. If you do decide to come with us you will have to be taken out of school indefinitely and I will have to tutor you until you can return." He paused to take a breath but I interrupted him.

"Say no more. I'm in." I said with an unwavering confidence. The chance to finally get out of the nasty all girls school I was a prisoner of? Hell yes. I couldn't stand that place.

Charles gave me an incredulous look. "Are you sure? You wouldn't be able to see your friends for, possibly, a long period of time; you understand that, don't you?"

I gave him the same exact look he gave me, but with sass. How I loved sass. "The only friends I have are my five brothers, the boys back home, and the guys I went to school with for a short while back when I was thirteen. I won't miss this wretched place one bit."

That got me a laugh from him. "Splendid. But before we shove off I'd like to see your gift in action. And I'm sure Erik would as well." Charles said with interest. And true to his word, Erik suddenly became a bit more alert to the conversation occurring in front of him. I smiled. It was nice to be around people who weren't completely and utterly terrified of what dwelled inside of you.

"Well... I guess it couldn't hurt to show off a little. Good thing I didn't listen to you when you asked me to dispel the energy I had collected or I wouldn't be able to do anything moderately impressive with my 'gift'." I gave Charles a playful wink before standing up and walking towards the middle of the courtyard. Now that I think about it, the courtyard wasn't so much a court as it was a yard. It was a moderate sized patch of grass in the centre of the school with a sidewalk intersecting four times to the four different buildings and the only thing you could do there was study or climb the three trees that decorated the area. And being an all girl school, rarely were those trees climbed. It wasn't very interesting, which was why no one ever really thought to hang out there.

But there I was, standing at the intersection, with two men I barely knew, one I half trusted and one I slightly feared, charged to the brim with electrical power. The smile playing at the corner of my lips was my natural reaction to all of the power inside of me. I hated to admit it, but I loved what I could do. And now I had a chance to show off with no restrictions applied. I yanked one of the hair ties off of my wrist and pulled my hair up into a sloppy bun. _Let's get this party started._

First, I had to focus the energy. If I just let it go without any control I could short out half of the east coast in a matter of seconds. _Been there, fried that_. I focused the energy equally throughout my body, causing a powerful electrical field to surround me. I exhaled a held breath, rolled my shoulders, and slowly let electricity out of my body. The sparks began to jump off of my skin, though the energy mostly remained in the palms of my hands, which I raised until my forearms made a perfect right angle with my biceps. Slowly, I lifted off of the ground. The power of my electrical field and the one that naturally encompassed the Earth repulsed each other. I had done this a few times in the past. It was one of my favorite things about my gift, the power of flight. I focused on the energy, letting out just a bit more.

That's when it got exciting.

All around us lights were flickering. Stems of lightning seemingly passed between the circuits that ran through the school and the energy in my hands. In front of me, Erik and Charles stood with astounded expressions on their faces, Charles' was more evident than Erik's but I didn't expect anything less or more from them. Content with the spectacle I just performed I allowed the energy to flow back into the school, successfully lowering me back to the ground and expelling most of the energy I had conducted. Charles rushed to me, grasping my hand in his. I chuckled slightly when Charles's hair began to stick out due to the static still around me. Little Einstein.

He looked at me with amazement. "Splendid. Absolutely stunning! You will be a great addition to our team of mutants!" He shook my hand vigorously. I arched an eyebrow at the word mutant. Once he saw my, once again, incredulous look, he explained, "The technical term for people like us is mutants. But don't think of it as an insult, mutation brought us from single celled organisms into the single most dominant species on this planet. We are just the next step in human evolution." With that explanation I felt less like a freak. Not really. I was happy as I was, smiling all the while. Erik came up and clapped me on the back.

"Great to have you." He said with a shadow of a smile. That was the most emotion I had ever seen on his face. But then it hit me.

"So... if you're with Charles, and Charles is a part of the mutant team, are you a mutant too?" I asked.

Erik gave another shadow of a smile before reaching his hand out towards the lamp post. Slowly, he clenched his fist and the metal of the lamp post began to buckle in on itself. It was a simple action. I assumed he had mastered his gift long ago, that's why he could execute it with such ease.

"I'll take that as a yes." I chuckled lightly.

"Now that we have that all settled, Maxine, you should go pack." Charles said, motioning towards the dormitories.

"Yeah, before someone comes and expects me to pay for Erik's destruction of that lamp post." I winked and started towards the dorm but decided to correct something while I was still there. I turned back to Charles. "I prefer Max, if you don't mind." With a curt nod from him and a smile from me I ran towards the dormitories, ecstatic for the adventure that would unfold once I finally left Saffron's All Girls Boarding School.


	2. Chapter 2

" _Affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen."_ – Lee Iacocca

* * *

 It was crazy, in a span of no more than fifteen minutes my life had completely changed. No longer was I the delinquent of an all girls' school. No longer was I the tomboy who swore like a sailor and had the breasts of a twelve year old. Who was I kidding? I would always be a tomboy at heart, and I would never filter my mouth for nobody! And my boobs aren't progressing anytime soon. But the point is that there were many things in my life that I was pretty sure I would never become, a nurse, a chef, a princess, and most certainly not a super secret CIA agent. Yet, there I was. Standing in front of the blah blah blah study of supernatural something for defense or something like that; I never did learn the full name of that organization of the CIA. It was a fairly modern building, consisting of simple architectural shapes and designs, lacking any color, but it practically oozed secrecy. I was sure there was going to be some things that I would see or witness in there for which I would never get a straight answer. Conspiracy is always a hot topic.

At that exact moment I couldn't care less. I was free from the bitches of my boarding school forever! And as I was about to jump out of my skin from happiness I felt a presence in my mind attempting to calm me down. I turned on my heel to glare at Charles, who was kindly getting my nap sack out of the trunk of the sedan that had picked us up from the airport. He gave me a mischievous smile as he pulled his paperboy bag out. I harrumphed very stereotypically, and then I yanked my bag from his grubby telepathic hands and swung it over my shoulder.

"Grubby? Now that was uncalled for." Charles said to me with a smile, assuring me that he wasn't offended by my choice of words...thoughts... _Man,_ I thought, _this is going to take a while to get used to_. I stuck my tongue out at Charles, which got me a chuckle.

All jokes aside, I had to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed his company. Over the hours spent on the plane together I learned that Charles was an Oxford grad in molecular mutation, as well as genetics, and had recently been given the title 'Professor'; though he said that I couldn't call him that until he actually had a teaching job somewhere. I also learned that Charles had a younger sister, Raven, who was also a mutant. He made it perfectly clear that Raven was his adopted/foster sister and shared no blood relation. It must've been easier for them, having each other. My family was just full of muscular army guys, nothing out of the ordinary there, and I had no one to turn to when my gift revealed itself. Eventually I had to tell my parents, they didn't shun me or anything, they were just a bit cautious around me for a while. My brothers were all ecstatic and refused to treat me any differently. I guess it could've been worse. So I can't complain about my home life much.

Charles gave my thoughts a nudge with his powers, successfully bringing me back to reality. He placed a calming hand on my shoulder before turning back to the sedan. Erik was still asleep in the back seat. He wasn't lying when he said that he was tired. With a smile on his face, Charles placed two fingers to his temple. Suddenly, Erik woke with a startled expression on his face. Charles tapped twice on the window. The older man scowled slightly at his friend before getting out of the car on the other side. He smoothed out his turtleneck and pulled his brown leather jacket back into place, which had attempted to escape his arms while he slept. Quickly and calmly, he grabbed his briefcase from the trunk, slammed it shut, and started towards the CIA building in front of them. Charles and I looked at each other and chuckled respectively. Erik sure was a sight to see.

"We should be getting inside; I have a meeting to attend to with the director of the CIA in just a few moments." Charles said with his fingers still placed against his temple. Was he reading my mind? Just as that thought passed through my head Charles removed his fingers and smiled at me. "My sister is coming this way. She should be here soon to show you to your room to change and meet the others."

I nodded my understanding and watched him walk into the building as well. Charles had taken the time on the plane to tell me about the other young mutants I would meet. There was Angel Salvadore, a girl that they found at a strip club, Sean Cassidy, a boy who seemed like an average, if not impulsive, guy, Alex Summers, who they found in a high security prison, Armando Muños, a New York City taxi driver, and Hank McCoy, one of the CIA's youngest researchers. They all seemed like a pretty unique bunch. I couldn't wait to meet them. But first I had to wait for Raven. I looked at my watch, 11:01 PM. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to wait long; but long enough for me to have a few drags would be fine.

I sat down on the curb next to the black sedan and reached into my bag for a smoke. I had packed all of the packs that I owned, but there seemed to only be two in my bag. _Damn that Charles!_ I plucked out one of my baby's, lit it, and sucked deeply. There was no better feeling in the world than lungs full of whatever was in those wonders. Though, I now know that there's rat poison and the sort so perhaps I should stop doing what feels good and start doing what's healthy.

"Aren't those bad for you?"

The sudden presence of someone behind me startled me. I hadn't even exhaled so when trying to speak I choked on the smoke, hacking profusely into the sleeve of my uniform. Whoever was behind me knelt down so we were at about the same eye level and pounded a couple of times on my back. It hurt, but I was able to cough out most of the smoke. I looked to my right. There knelt a beautiful blonde girl in a cute black turtleneck dress. She had subtle green eyes, rosy cheeks, and a charming smile on her face. I had to struggle not to smile back; this girl had induced a choking fit and had then pounded on my back! Yes, she helped me, but she was the one who caused the problem in the first place! Cute face or not I wasn't happy with how these circumstances unfolded!

"I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to scare you!" She laughed slightly. She stood, offering a hand to help me up as she did. I took the helpful hand, still feeling a bit spiteful. "I'm Raven. I'm sure Charles mentioned me."

I was promptly yanked into a standing position. _Strong girl._ I dusted off my black skirt; God, how I hated that thing. I went to take the cigarette out of my mouth when I realized it was on the ground, I groaned. These mutants were hell on my smokes. I stomped on my discarded cigarette, only a bit frustrated. "Yeah, he mentioned you."

There was a brief flash of disbelief on Raven's face before it went back to that pleasant smile. "Oh, you're just being spiteful because you dropped your cigarette."

It was the truth, but I just gave her a sarcastic look. She ignored it, grabbed my hand, and dragged me towards the entrance of the CIA building.

"You're going to love it here! Free food, free room and board, and absolutely _no_ restrictions! The CIA has mostly been leaving us alone and letting us take care of ourselves. Just imagine, open bar, makeovers, and enough ice cream to make us puke! We're going to have a blast!" The bubbly girl practically exploded with excitement. I thought to stop some of her ideas right in their tracks when Raven suddenly stopped and whirled around to face me. "Holy crap, I'm a terrible person! I never even asked you your name!"

Inwardly, I laughed, outwardly, I sighed. "Name's Maxine, though I prefer Max."

Raven gave me a look. "You prefer to be called a boy's name?"

"I have five brothers and I like being one of the guys; something about the liberation, the humbleness, and the pants." I said a bit dryly, motioning to the skirt I hadn't bothered to change out of. I really could be a dumb ass.

Raven laughed as if she had a realization. "Thank God, Angel is so far out there with all that stuff and she encourages me to be the same all the time. Which I do, I'm like that _sooooo_ bad. But I needed a girl on the other end of the spectrum to even it out. Sure, I like to dress girly and all that fun stuff, but I need someone I can just talk to that is female but won't squeal along with me."

We laughed at that statement. Clearly we both had our share of annoying girls. God how I hoped that the other girl I was going to be spending, possibly, months with wasn't as bad as she sounded. Raven correctly read my thoughts; maybe she was a telepath like her brother.

"I'm making her sound a lot worse than she actually is. She's actually really cool." She smiled at me reassuringly and pulled me back in the direction she had started.

Raven pushed open the doors to the building with her shoulder and I was greeted by a large entryway/atrium. It seemed to be just a place where you could get from one place to the other. Men in black suits were crossing the circle entryway, heading up the stairs to our left and right, and chatting avidly with each other. Seemed pretty occupied for it being so late. Overall though, very high class. Raven led me up the shallow staircase in front of us. Our entrance was met by several pairs of eyes studying us quizzically.

I had never felt so objectified in my life.

Did all of the agents here know about our gifts? I was guessing that they did but I didn't want to voice my thoughts. My eyes drifted back to Raven who seemed to be having a splendidly easy time ignoring everyone's curious glances. Her head was directed towards a single door across from us. On the door was a sign with the traditional writing indicating, 'Woman's Bathroom'. Good, because I really had to pee just then. I headed towards the white bathroom, trying not to leak everywhere.

As we approached the door, Raven turned towards me. "I know I was supposed to take you to your room and let you unpack and everything, but I'm really excited to learn everyone's powers and we all swore to keep our individual gifts to ourselves until everyone was present." She paused to make a grand gesture to the room I was so desperate to reach. "So here we are! You can change in here if you want or we can just head straight to the break room."

Seemed doable, and I really wanted to get out of that damn uniform I had been forced to wear for the past two years. "I'll change now, I guess." I tried to say as nonchalantly as I could, which was incredibly difficult with a bladder threatening to explode.

"Great!" Raven clapped excitedly. "I'll wait out here."

I gave my new acquaintance a small smile before pushing open the swinging bathroom door. Man, I was glad that it was empty. There was only one stall in the small powder room and thankfully the swinging door locked. Why have swinging doors to the bathroom in the first place? A question I would never get the answer to. With a shrug I locked the door, dropped my bag underneath the sink, and did my 'business'. Once my hands were washed and dried I thought it was about time that I changed out of the hideous blazer and skirt. First I tugged off the pleated black skirt with a red trim and flung it in the trash. No offence to the skirt I just never liked the feminine heathens. Next came the blazer, in the same colors as the discarded skirt, and the nasty tie that came with it. After further examination, I decided to keep the tie while the blazer followed my horrible skirt into the garbage. With the tie still in hand I then carefully unbuttoned the white shirt I had always been forced to wear underneath the wretched blazer. I didn't really mind the shirt; it was loose and not particularly girly. I then dropped the shirt onto my bag and there I stood, clad in nothing but my underwear. Around my breasts were two rolls of Ace bandages so nothing was exposed.

Why the bandages? No, I still had breasts underneath them I just chose to wrap them to make playing sports much easier. Honestly? Breasts just got in my way. I also didn't like guys staring at my chest, not that there was much to look at anyway. I was barely a 32A. I developed late and didn't develop much when I had. I smirked and returned to my bag to grab the denim shorts and the men's white tank within. The tank went on easily while I had to struggle slightly to get the shorts on. Once the clothes were on I glanced in the fairly large mirror on the wall above the sink. My hip length straight black hair was all frizzy and unkempt. Side effect of my powers, sadly. I groaned and began pulling the electricity that naturally forms around me, when I'm not concentrating, into my skin. My body shook from the charge and my mood instantly improved. Looking back in the mirror, I smiled. My hair had successfully calmed down. Thank God.

But my eyes. _Shit_. They were yellow. They only turned yellow when I was charged with electricity; otherwise they were just a plain old brown. Of all eye colors I could have it would be the most common of them all. I decided though that having yellow eyes when meeting your fellow mutants wasn't advised so I expelled the energy inside of me into the circuits of the base. My mood instantly plummeted. Another side effect of my powers. A nasty one. My now severely exhausted eyes found their reflection once more, assuring me that they had returned to their normal state.

And with that, I was done in the bathroom. I quickly shoved my tie and my white shirt back into my nap sack and tried to go through the swinging bathroom door as I swung my bag over my shoulder. I yelped as my nose connected with the metal obstacle in front of me. I, being the dumb ass that I was, had forgotten to unlock the thing. And also I hadn't even stopped to check, or even push it open with my hand. I literally walked right into it.

"You okay in there?" Raven asked from the other side of the door.

"It's all good!" I said a little too enthusiastically as I unlocked the door and pushed it open. Little did I know that Raven was right in front of the metal death device and it stopped abruptly when it smacked her in the face.

"OW!" She cried. Making sure she had moved, I pushed the door open again to gauge her condition. She leaned against the wall next to the door and was clutching her nose. There was no blood, thank God, but having experienced the same exact thing not seconds ago I knew that it hurt like a bitch.

I placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay? I didn't think you were right on the other side of the door." She looked at me with tears forming in her eyes. They weren't really tears of pain as much as the nose was just extremely sensitive and any slight disturbance induced tears. I could also tell that she wasn't in too much pain because when she took a good look at me she started laughing.

"Your nose is all red!" Raven said before bubbling over with laughter.

With a closer look to Raven's face you could see the blood starting to rush to her nose. I found myself laughing with the girl I had smacked in the face. All around us people were staring. I leaned against one of the columns that supported the second floor walkway in an attempt to avoid judgmental eyes. And yet our laughter never ceased. Well, eventually it did. I couldn't exactly live out the rest of my life as a laughing hyena. Actually, that sounds like fun.

After a minute or so we calmed down enough to talk coherently. We both agreed it was about time that we went to meet the others. She grasped my hand in hers again then steered me to the left through another swinging door. This time there was two. On the other side of the doors was a bleak grey hallway that only went a few feet then took a right. We followed the path until we came to yet another pair of swinging doors. That's when I felt it. A room charged to the brink of emotional electricity. There were people on the other side of those doors and either they were all getting along very well or they wanted to rip each other's tongues out. But based on the giddy smile on Raven's face I would have to say it was the former. Or she was a sociopath and it was the latter.

"Here we are!" The blonde beamed as she briefly let go of my hand so she could push both of the doors open at once. She waltzed into the room with a childish spring in her step while I followed as conspicuously as possible. The room was fairly large; to the left of the door was an oak bar with all assortments of alcohol. Across from the bar were a couple of square dining tables, white, with bland chairs on each side, black. The dining tables were next to a large display window that overlooked a very large open space that was only occupied by a large golf ball shaped structure that was emitting electricity at enormous amounts. Whatever the building was, it sure was important. Next to the large window was a pinball machine. It was fairly new, and it had flippers, I had never seen a pinball machine with flippers, though I heard it made the game quite a bit easier. On the wall across from the door was a juke box, man how I missed music. Music was banned from the school; well, all music except for classical, which we were forced to play in band. I shivered just thinking about it. Next to the juke box was a small fish tank, cute, but not terribly exciting. Opposite the window overlooking the lawn with the golf ball structure was another window which revealed a rather quaint courtyard.

The courtyard was square in shape and had a glass awning over a walkway to the left, a few shrubs to give it some appeal, and in the centre was a large bronze statue of a man; I had no idea who the man was and I didn't particularly care. Back in the room in front of the window was a coffee table with a black couch on either side of it and two matching comfy chairs were angled to look out the window but were placed far enough apart that the occupants didn't bump knees. The furniture wasn't all that important; it was the people sitting upon it that grabbed my undivided attention. On the couch facing me was a young girl, who I assumed to be Angel, and a black man, to the left of their couch, sitting in one of the comfy chairs, was a red headed guy whose face was covered in freckles. Next to the red head was a pretty boy blonde who wore a very angry expression. _He's going to be a butt load of sunshine, isn't he?_ I thought to myself with a laugh.

There was one other mutant in the room. A chestnut-haired boy whose back was turned to me. I've always had a thing for brunettes... Brunet's? Gaaah. I don't know. But still, something drew my attention to him. Like he was the most important person in the room and as far as I knew, maybe he was.

"Guys, this is Maxine, the last member to our little group!" Raven said, motioning to me before sitting down next to the brown-haired boy. At the sudden movement and words he turned around to face me. The serene blue eyes behind thick rimmed glasses connected with mine and I smiled. He blushed in response. How cute. These next few days were going to be tons of fun.

"Max. My name's Max."


	3. Chapter 3

_"There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify - so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish."_  - John Keats

* * *

"Well, Max, join the party!" The black man said from the couch while his long arms motioning to the small gathering around him. I smirked and I dropped my bag by the door. Not much of a party, and there was nowhere to sit. Wasn't that just pleasantly awkward! Luckily for me, Raven had scooted over to the left side of the couch and her neighbor was all the way against the right. She looked back at me and patted the spot next to her. I took that as a full out invitation to hop over the back of the couch and land smack dab in between the two occupants, which I executed perfectly. The boy shifted away from me, I hadn't actually planned on staying there long. I planted my feet at the edge of the cushions and lifted myself up so I was sitting on the back of the black couch. The two people next to me relaxed into the positions they had been in before I had ruined their two-some. Everything was back to normal. Well, if you considered seven mutants in the same room something normal.

"Soooo..." I started. "I know all of your names, just not to each face." I mentioned, not so subtly hinting that they should each share their names.

Luckily for me, the redhead seemed to get what I was trying to say. He got up from his chair and extended a fairly large hand out towards me. I grasped it firmly. "Sean Cassidy." He said in a southern drawl. A southern gentleman? Smashing.

The blonde who was sitting in the chair next to Sean's spoke up next. "Alex." He grumbled with a slight nod before taking a swig from his Coke bottle, which was the only thing that grabbed my attention.

"Hey, that's a little bit rude. I'm the guest here. Where's my drink?" I complained lightly. Everyone let out a small laugh while Sean headed over to the bar. He crouched down behind it and opened something. When he stood back up, his whole six and a half feet (slight exaggeration), I saw two Coke bottles in his hands. He then grabbed a glass from below the counter, poured one of the Cokes into it, opened whatever he got the bottles out of, placed a couple of ice cubes in the glass, then walked back over to the sitting area with the drinks in tow.

He handed me the bottle. "For the lady."

I smiled at his kindness. "Thank you, Mr Cassidy."

"Not a problem." He assured me, sitting back down in his chair with a smile, sipping his drink as he went.

The girl I assumed to be Angel gave Sean an 'I can't believe you just did that' look before looking back at me. "I'm Angel." She said with a smile, confirming my assumptions. "And don't be fooled by Sean's courtesies. He just wants to get into your pants."

At Angel's blunt statement, Sean choked on his drink. He didn't get it on any of us but we all laughed regardless, well, all except for the blue-eyed boy next to me who looked terribly nervous. I nudged him with my leg. "You okay?" I whispered.

He said nothing but he did nod in response before turning to look out the courtyard window as if there was something extremely exciting about the statue all of a sudden. As he turned I caught a glimpse of a blush creeping across his cheeks. He was so freaking adorable.

"Hey! I do  _not_  want to get into her pants! I was just being a gentlemen and I was going to get a drink then anyway do why not hit two birds with one stone?" Sean practically howled at Angel while playfully noogieing her. Angel just laughed. Most girls I knew would've gone into a hissy fit because a guy was messing up their hair. Ruining the hours it took to get their hair to look like poodles with all that hairspray. I'm glad she wasn't like that at all.

The man next to Angel was next to speak. "Now now, calm down." He said to the two still bickering over Sean's intentions. "We're all friends here."

With one last playful shove from Angel, their small fight ended.

"Great, I'm Darwin, by the way." 'Darwin' said cheerfully with a wave. Then he saw my confused expression and his face fell a bit. "Something wrong?"

"Charles didn't mention a Darwin being a part of the division." I said truthfully, and he hadn't.

"My real name's Armando." He said, his face lighting up with a brilliantly white smile.  _Wow that was just a bit blinding._

I snapped my fingers in understanding. "The world makes sense again." That got a small chuckle out of a couple of the young mutants around me. Once we were all done laughing everyone turned their attention to the silent boy next to me. He looked at us like he was a deer caught in the headlight's of our massive 18-wheeler.

"I'm... I'm, uh, H-Hank McCoy..." He muttered while fidgeting in his seat.

I placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hank."

His posture eased slightly. A smile even teased the corner of his lips.

"And I'm Raven!" Raven beamed from the other side of the couch. I turned to look at her sarcastically.

"Yes, darling, I know." I placed a kiss atop her head, gave it a pat, and then returned my attention back to the others.

But Raven wasn't done. "While we're all here, we should think of code names. We're government agents now; we should have secret code names." She paused to gauge everyone's expressions. "I want to be called Mystique."

"Damn," Sean said playfully from his chair. "I wanted to be called Mys- _tique_." He said, clearly meaning for it to be taken as a joke when he put the extra emphasis on the last syllable.

"Well, tough, I called it." We all started to turn our attention away from Raven but we were suddenly drawn back to the fact that she had turned into an exact replica of Sean, arching her, now his, eyebrows.

There was a 'Whoa' a 'What' and a 'Hot Damn!' from Darwin, Angel, and myself respectively. I looked at Sean who was taken aback and was so shocked that he shot back, causing the chair he was sitting on to balance on the back legs.

"And I am way more mysterious than you." Raven said in Sean's suddenly smooth voice. The one way you could tell that she wasn't really Sean was by her posture. It was way too proper to belong to that lanky guy. She turned back into herself and we all applauded, even Sean. Girl was damn impressive. "Darwin, what about you?" Raven directed at the man across from her.

He didn't take long to respond. "Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname and, you know, it sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all." He paused momentarily for effect. "Check this out." He got up from his seat and started walking behind the couch.

I leaned down to whisper in Raven's ear, "Did his pecs bounce when he said, 'adapt to survive and all'?"

"I think they did..." She whispered back. We chuckled to ourselves and went back to watching Darwin, who, at that point, was next to the fish tank, looking at us smugly. He then plunged his head into the water, causing the fish living in it quite a fright. We watched closely as the skin between his eyes and ears became gills. He opened his mouth and with his magnificent smile successfully breathed with them. That was easily the coolest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

Darwin then lifted his head from the water, shook it, was met with applause, and then grabbed a towel that was lying on a small table behind him. "Thank you, thank you. What about you?" He asked Sean as he returned to the couch.

Deep in thought, Sean leaned forward and touched the pads of his fingers together. "I'm going to be... Banshee."

"Why would you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank asked innocently.

A playful smirk colored Sean's face. "You might want to cover your ears." He warned as he slinked out of his chair and crouched down in front of the coffee table, facing the courtyard. We all hesitantly brought our hands up to our ears as Sean inhaled for about (exactly) seven seconds. I counted. He then leaned his head to the right, then to the left, looked up and let out an extremely high pitch whistle. The window to the courtyard shattered into a million tiny shards. He had whistled like any normal person would to sing along to a tune on the juke but his had the power to make my brain practically vibrate in my skull. We all laughed in disbelief of his rad power. He then pointed to me. "Your turn!"

I smirked.  _Time to show off!_  "I guess I would have to be... Synergy? Yeah. Sounds cool." I decided. Though I was thinking about it the entire time everyone else was going, I liked to pretend I just came up with it on the spot. Raven gave me an odd look as I started rubbing the pads of my fingers together, as did everyone else. But when sparks started to fly off my skin, they seemed to understand. Hank stared at my hands in utter scientific amazement. I then sent a concentrated burst at the light fixture above our heads and the light blew. Shards sprayed in all directions and I used my power to manipulate electrical fields to coax them all away from my fellow mutants. Showing off, good. Accidentally getting small sharp fragments in everyone's eyes? Bad.

"That was absolutely fascinating! C-can you do anything else?" Hank asked in an innocent yearning to obtain more knowledge.

"Well..." I paused. "I've only done this once before so I don't know if I can do it on command." I said lamely. I then opened my hand out in front of me and concentrated, hard. The lights around us began to flicker and a ball of electrical energy formed in my hand. I then closed my hand around the energy and we were surrounded by darkness. I had absorbed all of the electrical energy within a few yards into my body. And, if I was correct, I should've been glowing about then.

"Holy shit!" Sean said from somewhere in the room. I assumed he hadn't moved but who knows with that kid.

I opened my eyes; I hadn't really known that I shut them. I was right. There was a distinct blue hue emanating from my skin. Everyone started laughing and I returned my stolen energy back to the facility. The light returned to the fixtures and I could see everyone's beautiful faces again.  _Oh dear God what is that- oh that's just Sean. My bad._

"I think the Angel should go next." I said, motioning towards the girl across from me.

She seemed to like that idea. Angel stood up from her spot very delicately. "My - uh - stage name is Angel." She said with a bit of regret in her voice as she shoved off her jacket. Sean whistled. "It kind of fits." She said smugly. The first thing that caught my eye was the tattoos on her shoulders. She turned around and then I saw two more tattoos on her back.  _It's almost like they're alive... wait a second; they're lifting up off of her skin! Holy_ crap _that's cool!_

"You can fly?" Raven said excitedly beside me.

"Uh huh. And um..." Angel said as she scanned the room before her eyes settled on the bronze statue in the courtyard. She turned her body towards it, inhaled slightly, and spat a small ball of acid that landed on the head of the statue.  _That was... awesome and disgusting. I like it_. We laughed in admiration of her gift. Someone said 'disgusting' while laughing but there was no bite to it so Angel didn't seem offended.

"I would've called you Spitfire." I said truthfully, shrugging my shoulders. Angel took a second to contemplate the idea; seemed as though she liked the name too. Still, she smiled, proud of what she had done, tucked away her wings, and put her jacket back on.

After making sure she was covered she turned to Hank. "What's your name?" Clearly implying what he wanted his super secret agent name to be.

Hank didn't reply. His lips pressed together and his brow furrowed. Was he embarrassed? We had all been put on the spot, so he wasn't alone. I looked at him watching his feet; they were uncomfortably trying to hide underneath the couch. _Does his mutation have to do with his feet?_

"How 'bout Bigfoot?" Alex said teasingly from his seat. If Hank wasn't so insecure about himself I'm sure that he would've played along, but he genuinely seemed like he was going to burst at the seems with either embarrassment, or fear.

"Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet." I said with plenty of spite in my voice. I didn't appreciate bullying.

Raven leaned forward a bit to look at Alex's feet. "And, uh, yours look kind of small."

Everyone, besides Alex of course, gave a good you-just-got-burned laugh. Hank even smiled a bit. I nudged him with my knee and he gave me the most adorable smirk I had ever seen.

"Okay, now." Darwin said calmly in an attempt to settle down the unruly youngsters around him. "Alex, what is your gift, what can you do?"

"It's not- umm... I just can't-" He paused. "Uhh... can't do it, can't do it in here." He answered with an uncharacteristic nervousness to his voice.

"Well, can you do it out there?" Darwin asked, clearly curious what he could do. As we all were.

"Why don't you do it out there?" A very eager Raven said from beside me. "Come on!" She then said when he still seemed adamant on skipping on his show-and-tell.

That's when it started, "Alex, Alex, Alex," Darwin started to chant, and everyone, except for Hank, joined in.

"Alex, Alex, Alex!"

Finally, he gave in, getting a 'Yeah!' from Sean. Alex stood, placed his soda on the coffee table, and walked over towards the shattered window.

"That's the spirit!" Darwin encouraged.

Still, something seemed edgy about him. "Get down when I tell you." He warned us just before stepping through the window. Cautiously, we followed him. We all crowded around the broken frame to watch Alex who had retreated into the back right corner, out of our sight. We leaned out the window.

"Get back." He warned, and we obeyed. But we quickly stuck our heads back out again. Alex had started concentrating until he saw us again. "Get back!" He said with a bit more bite to it. This time we didn't obey and continued to watch him. "Whatever." He grumbled. He then rolled his shoulders slightly and flexed all of his muscles. His core began to swivel in circles and he was suddenly surrounded by red rings. Without really having any physical hold on the he threw the rings out into the night sky; one skimmed past the broken window so we all ducked, one impacted the CIA building on the second floor, and the last one he sent right at the statue. That poor statue. The red ring successfully cut the statue at an angle from shoulder to hip and the two pieces had caught fire where Alex's powers had split it. Not even watching the top half of the statue drop to the ground, we were awe struck. The three boys were sort of dumbfounded while Angel and Raven were jumping up and down and clapping and I was tipping an imaginary hat to him.

Alex looked back at us and smiled, clearly feeling better about his powers now that he knew he had our approval. A very proud Sean walked up to the energy wielding mutant and clapped him on the back.

"That was amazing!" He laughed.

In all of the commotion, I realized I never learned Hank's mutation. "Hold the phone!" I practically screamed, startling everyone. They all looked at me so I continued. "I want to see what Hank can do!"

Hank looked at me with scared eyes and was completely red in the face. I probably shouldn't have called him out the way that I had but, oh well.  _What's done is done_.

"I-it's not that great..." He mumbled while biting his lower lip. I gave him a reassuring pat on the back. If nothing else I was going to make Hank feel better about himself over the next few months. That much I was sure of.

"Come on, Hank. Please?" I cooed. I may have gone to an all-girls school but I was still pretty good at getting boys to do whatever I wanted.

He blushed even more, but he looked as if he was going to comply. Hesitantly, he bent over and took off his shoes. Next came his socks. With the removal of his footwear I was able to see why he was so self-conscious about his feet. They weren't feet at all, they were hands.

"Hooooooly sexy Jesus! That is awesome!" I yelled ecstatically.

Hank gave me a shy smile before heading out into the courtyard, carefully avoiding the broken glass. Practically exploding with curiosity I followed him. He gave me a quick glance before he jumped up and began scaling the side of the building even though there were no grooves in it. He was practically free climbing thirty feet of glass and doing it like a champ. He made it all the way to the top of the building, looked around, and began his descent. The only difference about the trip down was that he had started from the corner and was rebounding off of each wall as he made his way to the ground.  _Lord. Who could be ashamed of being able to do that!_ Once he landed I rushed over to him and squeezed him in a vice grip of a hug.

"That was pretty bad ass!" Sean said excitedly from behind us. I turned to see that everyone was standing there in the same shocked state as when Alex had show cased his talent. Suddenly they all burst into applause. I looked back at Hank and laughed at his humbled expression. He really was the most adorable guy I ever had the pleasure to meet. From his shy blue eyes to his wickedly awesome hand-feet, he was my definition of perfection.


	4. Chapter 4

**Perfect Synergy**

" _Living under a cloud of black...udder a single word and watch the lightning strike...feel the roar of the thunder. Periods of calm are like tears dripping from a rainbow...and life goes on."_ – Donna A. Favors

* * *

Over the course of an hour or so I learned that there was so much more to the mutants around me besides their unique genetic structure. Like anyone else, you can make all sorts of assumptions and judgments, but keep your mouth shut because they will, more often than not, surprise the hell out of you. Take us for example, with Darwin being the oldest at twenty-six and myself the youngest at sixteen, our occupations ranged from poorly paid cabbies to being under the employment of none other than the CIA itself before this whole mutant ordeal even came to light. If you happened by our conversation and had no clue as to our powers and gifts, you'd probably think we weren't any different from the average Joe's. Though it wouldn't stay that way for long. You can't have a room full of mutants and _not_ talk about the origins of our gifts. Sorry Joe. Nothing personal.

"So, who thinks they got their powers first?" Angel asked to start us off.

Sean, Alex, Darwin and I looked at each other, thinking that one of us would've been the youngest. Darwin looked like he was going to speak up when he suddenly stopped. Behind me, I being on the floor now, both Hank and Raven raised their hands tentatively in the air. They looked at each other and hesitantly asked, "Born with it?" They nodded in response to the other's question.

Hank and Raven started to laugh when Sean interrupted them, "So, what, you were born and then you changed into the spitting image of your mom, or something?" He joked.

What Sean said had a good point to it since none of us were aware to the true nature of Raven's mutation. Or, the true nature of herself. And boy was it a doozy. She gave us a nervous shadow of a smile and the blue feathery substance you saw briefly as she changed appearances began to cover her entire body. Inch by inch her flushed skin was coated with a cerulean blue substance that was actually her natural skin, it was such a beautiful hue that I was almost entranced by it. After a minute, before us was no longer a peppy blonde girl with green eyes and rosy cheeks, but a blue skinned girl with blood red hair and piercing yellow eyes. I looked up at her in amazement. Her bare legs next to me were also just as mesmerising and had weird little markings along the sides of her calves. Without really knowing it I found my fingers tracing over the intricate skin of my friend.

"That tickles!" She giggled as her leg jumped from my touch. She was almost like a work of art. I looked back at everyone else to see if they were as impressed as I was. Their jaws were, almost literally, on the floor in shock. Raven took a second to compose herself and said with a gesture of her hand, "I was born like this."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hank, who seemed rather embarrassed. I was guessing it was because he had felt like such an outcast with only his slightly mutated feet when the girl sitting next to him was born completely blue. But he didn't need to feel like that. His struggle was just as real as hers. I placed a comforting hand on his knee and squeezed. He gave me a thankful look but still looked rather uneasy. I leaned my head against his leg when my previous attempt didn't work all that well in some hope that he would relax.

"To get this straight, Hank was born with his feet like that and Raven was born blue as the blue lagoon?" Sean asked, yet again. The two in question nodded.

Sean laughed. "Awesome!" We all joined the red-head's laughter.

_Man, is he easily amused or what?_ I kept to myself. Not that I could talk. You could get me to laugh at the littlest thing.

"So, who's next?" I asked, clapping my hands and rubbing them together. My power had become apparent just before adolescence so I imagined I would be close to last, chronologically.

"Well, I figured out I was 'different' when I was eight. No one else figured out before then?" Darwin mentioned in passing, looking around and waiting for someone to stop him.

Amidst our little group, Alex spoke up. "I was able to shoot out those rings when I was seven. I'm not much of a sharer so you can tell your story first."

Hesitantly, Darwin continued. "I grew up in the Bronx and I was playing stick ball with some kids when my cousin ran out into the street into oncoming traffic. And I decided it would be smart to run after her so we could _both_ get plowed over by an oncoming 18-wheeler. I thank God every day for my mutation just because of that one incident. Instead of turning into a pancake, my body adapted into titanium. And other than the bill my ma got from the truck driver for the damage done to his engine, I came out completely unscathed." Darwin boasted with a large grin on his face. "My cousin got by with a few scratches, but she was more terrified than anything."

"Lucky bastard. I wish that _my_ idiotic blunders ended that well." Everyone gave a small chuckle to my statement. "Now, time for sour puss to tell his tale."

At first, no one knew who I meant by sour puss. They got it though when I actually pointed to him. One by one, heads turned and laughter erupted. Alex gave me a menacing look before letting out a labored sigh and telling his sad story.

"In the foster home I was in, it was eat or be eaten. When I was first put into the system I got into a lot of fights with the older kids. So one day, I don't know what was so different about it; I guess they just got fed up, a bunch of them ganged up on me while I was sleeping and dragged me down the road. They tied me to a fence that surrounded the abandoned factory next door and started hitting me with whatever they could get their hands on. Rocks, garbage, bottles, bats, they didn't care. After I lost consciousness a couple of times I felt something inside of me. At first I thought I was having a heart attack. Next thing I knew, all the kids were being rushed to the hospital for extreme fourth degree burns. Luckily for them it only grazed the tops of their skin so nothing had to get amputated." He said with such nonchalance it was almost frightening.

It took me awhile to realize that he wasn't being indifferent because he was heartless; he was down playing his experience because it actually caused him severe emotional pain. Alex may have been a tough guy on the outside, but I could tell that was purely his survival and primal instinct showing through. He told us that he was a street fighter so I could see why he thrived; it was eat or be eaten.

"That's harsh, man. They all okay now?" Sean asked lightly and quietly.

Alex gave a bit of a shrug. "One died a year later, from a completely unrelated incident, and I think the rest of them formed a gang and are still in Virginia." He said without a hint of remorse. "Who's next?"

I gave everyone a minute to absorb all of that before, tentatively, I raised my hand. "Probably me. I was eight or nine. Maybe ten; can't really remember."

Next to me, Raven laughed. "How do you _not_ remember when you first used your powers? I know I was born like this but it's still a memorable moment if you ask me!"

I looked up at her and stuck my tongue out. "Bite me, Madame Bleu. And I wasn't born with my awesomeness visible for everyone to see, thank you very much!" I said very matter-of-factly. "I was about eight when my older brothers all dared me to stick a pair of scissors in an electrical outlet." Took everyone a second to grasp how quickly I changed topics.

"You refused, right?" Hank asked me from behind me to my right.

I looked up at him and winked deviously, earning me an alarmed look in return. "Of course not. Once you dare Maxine Dugan-Fuller to do something, she sure as hell is going to do it! Not that it mattered anyway. I was electrocuted and it didn't hurt one tiny bit. I probably would've forgotten all about that if I wasn't static shocking everyone for the next year. That's why I'm not so sure if my powers manifested then or when I simulated a lightning strike. Besides, my childhood's pretty fuzzy around that time anyway." I paused briefly and was about to continue until Hank practically leapt off the couch in excitement.

"You can simulate lightning?" He exclaimed with a loudness I hadn't ever heard come from him. I smiled at his outburst and he turned a red that rivaled Raven's natural hair color.

"Uh huh. It takes a bit of effort, but it's definitely doable." I offered, hoping the subject would be dropped if I pretended that the conversation wasn't happening.

And by looking at the expectant faces around I knew that my tactic completely failed me. I never was very tactical, or successfully tactical. I gave a sigh before standing and edging towards the courtyard. The mutants rose from their chairs and followed me. Once I was in the courtyard I gave them all a regretful look. I clapped my hands together and began rubbing them furiously. Several large sparks jumped from the resulting friction but I wasn't going to do anything too spectacular until I had charged myself completely. I could feel it, so much kinetic energy flowing through my circuits. God, it was better than any artificial high out there. I aimed my hands at the remains of the statue Alex had desecrated and let the electricity escape in one large burst. Briefly, the whole area was illuminated, almost to the point to blind a man. Then the statue exploded, his shoes being the only thing intact anymore. Applause sounded from behind me. I turned and gave a sly smirk.

Little did they know the electric blast had completely exhausted me. I was having extreme difficulty keeping my eyes open let alone standing up straight. That was something that had been worrying me; no one else seemed to be tired after using their powers. Maybe it's because my electricity runs through my veins and there's- I have no idea how their powers coursed through them. Disregarding my theories, I walked back through the glass and nearly collapsed on top of Hank who was just standing there with a gaping hole for a mouth. I gave him a weak smile.

He grabbed me by the shoulders. "Can I do some tests, or something? Please?"

I, being much too tired to object, nodded my compliance. I still had the energy to joke though. "At least buy me dinner first." I smiled weakly. :But we're… we're uhh... we were sharing our age... power... whatever..." I muttered before plopping down on the floor in front of the couch Raven and Hank had been sitting on. Everyone soon returned to their seats as well, but not before giving me a worried look. They had noticed my sudden lethargy; well, they'd have to be blind not to!

I ignored their glances. "So, who's next?"

"I think that would be me." Angel said with a smile. "I woke up one morning when I was twelve with these "tattoos" on my shoulders." She said motioning to said body parts. "My mom freaked out thinking that I had _actually_ gone out and had them done in some sleazy parlour or something. After getting in a screaming fight with her I just wished I could fly away... and that's just what I did. I flew away."

That was extremely cool. But her story wasn't done there.

"So, that's the story of my wings. The story of my 'spitfire', as Max called it, is a bit funnier. I was thirteen... and I was with my first boyfriend..."

"Oh shit." I mumbled, covering my mouth, having connected the dots before some of them were formed.

"I was with my first boyfriend, experiencing my first kiss, when he started screaming. I was so shocked... I had acid saliva. It was _soooo_ grooooss!" She whined while laughing. "He was fine, and in the end I learned how to separate my two... you know!"

We all laughed and turned to Sean, the only person left, who was inconspicuously eating some brownies; guess he had them stuffed in his pocket. But he was almost trying to hide them and being the sister to boys who liked to dabble in recreational drugs, I was suspicious. I yanked the brownie out of his hand and nibbled at it. I remember it tasted… like cannabis. Sean was eating pot brownies? What the hell! I know it was the 60's but I totally forgot about this until just now I'm sorry!

"Sean? The fuck?" I yelled while laughing.

" _Shhhhh_." He whispered, giggling a bit. "Why're you guys all looking at me, anyways?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "You're the only one who hasn't gone, dumb ass."

"Ohhhh... well... uh… where haven't I gone?" He drawled, though you could almost say he slurred it.

"Your powers, Sean. We were sharing when we first got our powers." I tried to remind him without smacking him.

He smiled. "Oh yeah!" The pot brownies were clearly taking effect already. "Oh yeah, I was fifteen... I think. I was at a cousin's wedding and I was dancing with another cousin... heh... and she stepped on my foot. And she dug this real skinny heel into me and I screamed, and screamed, and screamed." He laughed. "It was so funny! The cousin I was dancing with lost consciousness in no time at all! A few other family members did too, but the real funny part was when the groom got so delirious that he smooched the best man. It took a shouting match and an absence of about two hours to prove that he wasn't in love with the guy." Sean said before laughing so loud I had to cover my ears. Damn boy was already high as a kite. How many did he eat? In his fit of drug-induced-laughter he kicked his glass of Coke at Angel and Darwin. The glass narrowly avoided her as she was nestled against the back of the couch while the projectile connected with his knee and shattered.

"Sean!" Raven gasped from the other side of the table, half expecting Darwin to be howling in pain.

Darwin looked at Sean and smiled. "That the best you got?" He then banged on the side of his knee with his knuckles and a metal sounded resonated. Of course, he adapted to survive even the dumbest of Sean's antics. _Now that's what I call a superpower._

We all looked at Sean to see if he was going to accept Darwin's challenge. Of course he was. He grabbed Alex's drink right out of his hand and chucked it at the older man. The drink shattered on his chest which had turned into some sort of metal scales. Everyone around quickly shielded their eyes, just because Darwin could survive it didn't mean we could.

"That tickled." Darwin scoffed with an overly confident tone.

Suddenly, Alex stood up and shoved off his jacket. "I want in." He said. But first, he punched Sean in the shoulder.

"Dude! You're supposed to hit him, not me!" The redhead complained.

"That was for smashing my Coke." Alex replied with smirk before grabbing a broom that was by the swinging doors. He raised it high when Raven, who had long since returned to her blonde form, stood up, and got in his way.

"You think you could take that over there?" She said, gesturing to the open area behind her. The three boys looked at each other, shrugged, and headed over to perform their shenanigans out of everyone's way.

Once they were a safe distance away I turned towards Hank. "So what else can you do with those magnificent feet of yours?" I asked, hoping to make Hank feel more comfortable while sating my incurable curiosity.

"Nothing really..." He mumbled.

"Nothing? Are you forgetting what you showed us in your lab? That wasn't nothin'!" Raven said, nudging him in the side.

Hank blushed something fierce. He then stood, looked at his feet, and trudged over towards the dining tables. I thought he was going to jump on one of them. Man was I surprised when he flipped upside down and gripped onto a dangling light fixture with his hand-feet. I watched all the blood rush to his face before asking, "How long can you stay up there?"

"I'm not sure..." He said with a bit of struggle.

"You should test it!" I said with a tap to his nose. I then turned back to the girls. "Who's for turning up some tunes?" I got an excited response from both Raven and Angel. We then jumped over to the juke box and began sifting through the records.

Raven paused on one. "Hippy hippy shake! I love that song!"

So, that is what we played. Angel quickly ran over to the bar and poured herself another Coke, Raven jumped onto the couch Angel and Darwin had once occupied, and I jumped onto the coffee table. When Angel returned with her drink in hand her wings immediately lifted from her shoulders and she began flying in time to the music. I looked behind me to see how the boys were doing. They had since moved the other couch to give them more room to make a mess. To my left, Angel had knocked over a table, and Hank was rocking out while hanging upside down. I decided to add to the ambience by playing with the lights. All around us lights were flickering, giving one the feeling being in a club. Back in front of me I could see Sean wielding a chair and barreling towards Darwin. Darwin's back, shoulders, and head was covered in the scale like armour, so we didn't fear for his safety. But when the chair practically ricocheted off the adaptable mutant we all burst into laughter. Alex then proceeded to start beating Darwin with... a leg from a table? I looked back at the dining tables, sure enough, one was missing a leg. I continued to laugh until I heard, " _What_ are you doing?"

We all halted our merriment to turn and look into the most pissed off brown eyes we had ever seen.

_Shit._


	5. Chapter 5

**Perfect Synergy**

_"Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity."_ \- L. Frank Baum

* * *

Moira McTaggert. The uptight brunette who exposed mutants to the CIA. I had never met her before that, but Raven mentioned her in passing once or twice. From what I heard she was nice enough but had a flaming temper when needed. I don't know what it was, I just didn't get along with her. She reminded me a bit of my aunt Agnes. Ugh, I'm shivering just thinking about her. At that point in time she had her hands on her hips and was flanked by her henchmen. Erik and Charles. And they looked disappointed. Truly and utterly disappointed. I looked to my fellow recruits. Angel had lowered to the ground, Hank had dropped from the light fixture, and Darwin had returned to his normal regular fleshy form. We were completely silent aside from Sean who was having a hard time containing a high induced laughter. Alex quickly delivered a blow to his gut with his elbow to shut him up, which was moderately successful. I turned back to the two older men and the older woman in front of us, ready for the onslaught.

"Who destroyed the statue?" Moira asked with one hand on her hip and the other pointing back to said desecrated statue. Technically she was pointing to a pair of bronze shoes. The look on her face was practically screaming "I did not sign up for the shit. If these kids need a babysitter I'm sending them all home". In my defense, I _was_ only sixteen at the time. In her defense I don't think I've changed at all and I'm seventeen now. Touche Moira.

"I-it was Alex." A nervous voice that could only belong to Hank tattled from behind me. I turned to give Hank a, 'really?' look and in the process I saw Alex give him a, 'what the hell, man!' gesture with his arms while Sean was sort of just, 'whaaaaat? Where was I when that happened?'

Let's just say I had to seriously fight the impulse to smack my forehead with my palm.

I had to fight the urge again when Raven said, "No, Havok, you have to call him Havok, that's his name now." I don't know why she felt the need to talk. Was she misinterpreting their facial expressions for gas? "And we were thinking..." She continued while pointing at Charles. "You should be Professor X, and _you_ should be Magneto." She said turning her finger towards Erik.

_Raven, please shut up_. I pled silently.

Back out in the courtyard, Erik scoffed. "Exceptional." He then exited stage left followed by a very pissed Moira. Leaving us alone with Charles who looked, as I said, disappointed.

"I expect more from you." He said, looking directly at his sister.

_Man, is he harsh on her or what?_ Soon after he also followed Erik out of the courtyard, leaving us alone once more. We were all silent for a while. No one moved, not even Sean. Out of the corner of my eye I watched my blonde friend lift a shaky hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. I turned towards her, she was fighting back tears.

I've never been all that great when it came to comforting people. Especially when the comforting involved another girl. I just- I didn't connect with them. I played rugby and wrestled in the mud. I didn't fret over my hair nor did I swoon over Elvis. I also wasn't as easily affected by words as other girls seemed to be. But Raven was a friend. A cheery girl that enjoyed being with friends and laughing that loud laugh that she had. Trying to cheer her up was the least I could do.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "You okay?" I asked her quietly.

Her eyes, full of tears, looked up at me and she nodded briskly. "Yeah. I should- I should be fine." She spoke quietly, fearing her voice would betray her. It caused my heart to lurch. I reached down and grabbed her hand, lifting it up and pressing my chapped lips against her skin.

"I think you're pretty." I offered with a playful grin and wide puppy dog brown eyes, hoping my compliment would ease the tension.

She smiled up at me, a little in disbelief, as if saying, "how could such a simple phrase make me feel better?" I guess I'm a little better at comforting than I gave myself credit for. I felt the negative energy start to leave her, mission accomplished. Raven gathered herself and said to the rest of us, "I think I'm going to call it a night."

"Me too." Hank interjected, coming up to Raven's left and offering his arm like a little gentlemen.

_So he likes Raven. Huh._ I thought to myself, removing myself from her and giving a small goodbye wave. As Hank helped her through the broken window frame she did the same, mouthing a 'thank you' before heading across the lawn and straight for, shockingly, another pair of swinging doors. If you thought this was going to be a tragedy about my life, you'll be sadly disappointed. It's really me seeking revenge against those doors.

"I think we're going to bed too." Darwin said, motioning to him and Angel. Their expressions were somber but the energy the were exuding was anything but. Angel wrapped her hand in his and they headed in the same direction Hank and Raven had just seconds before. They didn't even give me time to comment on them leaving together. That dampened my mood even more, even though it had improved considerably with my success in cheering up Raven. I turned towards the two boys who stayed behind. Sean seemed to have come down considerably as he had his hands shoved into his pockets and he was toeing miscellaneous pieces of rubble. On the other hand, Alex, who was looking everywhere except for the statue we so thoroughly trashed, was moving towards the furniture they had relocated.

"So, just us, then?" I asked before plopping down on the sofa Alex had just moved.

He gave me an exasperated look before he nudged Sean and motioned for them to reclaim their chairs. Once seated Alex let out an exhausted sigh. "Guess so."

For a few minutes, nothing was said. We were still a little weary about the altercation with Moira and Charles. Charles was always a total charmer whenever I talked to him. He'd never even implied that he had anything but pleasant emotions lurking around in his cranium. I assume he had come off to the others in a similar fashion because they seemed just as riveted. Another minute or so passed and the silence was sort of getting on my nerves. Guess it was time something was said.

"Is Charles always like that towards Raven?" I asked no one in particular, picking out some dirt from underneath my frayed nails.

"Like what?" Alex asked in return while buttoning and unbuttoning the cuff of his shirt. Sean was too busy playing with his unruly hair to give his opinion.

"Like he's a disapproving father? Sort of reminds me of an abusive relationship." I explained.

Alex shrugged. "From what I've seen they're thick as thieves. Guess it was just his older brother coming through." He then began to pick something out of his teeth, what it could be I had no idea. Hadn't seen him eat a damn thing since I arrived.

"I guess..." I muttered. Man, was I glad my brothers never acted that way towards me. Not that I'd let them. Still the whole experience had left me rather edgy. In summation: I needed a cigarette bad. I stood up and smacked the top of my thighs. "I'm going to have a smoke." I said before heading towards the door.

As I came around the couch Alex grabbed hold of my wrist. "You have smokes? How?" He asked in a tone of disbelief, like it was the most impossible thing in the world for me to have a pack.

"I, uhh, put them in my bag and brought them here?" I said with the most 'duh' tone I could muster.

"Charles took all of mine, why didn't he take yours?" Alex asked in a slightly irritated voice. Boy needed a light, too.

"I have secret compartments in my bags specifically for stuff like this. You're not supposed to smoke when you're still in school." I explained while tapping my foot impatiently. _Alex needs to let me go before I snap from the lack of nicotine, rip his arm off, and beat him to death with it!_

"But didn't he read your mind to find out where they were?" He continued. Boy just wasn't giving up.

I sighed. "I can block Charles out by encompassing my head with an electrical field. If he tries to breach my mind he'll get a major migraine."

What I said was true. I had tried it on the plane. I could feel Charles peering into my mind so I got a bit upset. Then, my powers sort of protected me. Next thing I knew, Charles was howling in pain. I honestly thought I had electrocuted him. Turns out I could keep telepaths from pilfering through my empty skull by concentrating my powers. Handy trick.

"Well... can I have a few?" Alex asked as nicely as he possibly could. Which was sad, since he didn't ask nicely at all.

I groaned. _Why am I such a giving person._ I walked over to my bag, rummaged through it, grabbed one of two packs, and tossed it to Alex. "Keep 'em." I said as he caught it with ease.

As much as it pained me to give my babies away it just wasn't fair that I had the only pack. I wasn't the only smoker on the planet. Besides, I had another. The blonde looked at me as if I was a God amongst men. I rolled my eyes, swung my bag over my shoulder, and before Alex had a chance to thank me I pushed my way through the swinging doors to find a roof access. As I wandered back into the circle atrium I could feel my skin start to tingle. If I didn't have a puff soon I might have just started electrocuting the unlucky passerby. Frantically, I looked around. My eyes settling on the first door I saw that wasn't either a bathroom or an exit and heading right for it.

After a few wrong turns and about three dozen swinging doors I found myself in front of a door that read 'Roof Access'. Sweet heaven on Earth. I said a silent prayer to the Lord above before I yanked the door open, not wasting any more time, and took the stairs leading up to the roof two at a time. Once I was at the last step I grabbed my last remaining pack and zippo from my bag and pushed open the door that separated me from the roof. The breeze that hit me made me feel alive: it was so brisk and soothing. I couldn't help closing my eyes and basking in the beauty of a perfect summer night. My black hair tousled around my head when a gust of wind hit me, rousing a gleeful giggle out of me.

This is what it truly felt like to be be able to experience such a childish joy for such a natural thing.

Maybe it was the change in atmosphere or the comforting air around me but I didn't feel jumpy anymore. I still wanted to smoke a cigarette though I didn't want to waste a whole stick until I was _really_ stressing. I gave it some thought and eventually compromised by just smoking a bit of one and saving the rest for a time it was truly needed. I pulled one out of the carton, placed it between my lips, and tried to light it despite the wind. My callused hand was cupped around the end of my light to help keep a flame. After four or five flicks I was able to light the thin white paper. I puffed a bit, to make sure that the embers remained, and I inhaled deeply. Even though I didn't need the smoke to calm me down I still liked the taste. Sue me. I exhaled the smoke through my nose and shivered from the feeling. Should've been a crime to enjoy something so much.

"Aren't those bad for you?"

I turned quickly to see Hank standing near the door with his hands in his pockets. That's when I felt my smoke start to fall out of my mouth. Even quicker than when I turned around I grabbed the cigarette before it had a chance to hit the ground and I threw my fist into the air.

"Ha! Take _that_ mutant agenda!" I yelled at the sky. Looking back at Hank I could tell that he was very confused by my sudden outburst. Of course I was going to explain. "I'm not crazy, it's just ever since Charles hunted me down mutants have been in the mindset to destroy my chances at smoking. I dropped it when I met Charles, I choked on the smoke when I met Raven, Alex just took my other pack, and here you are trying to scare me into dropping another one! You mutants are cruel, I don't have that many left!"

Hank chuckled slightly at my frantic explanation. "I'm sorry." He muttered before walking over to the edge of the roof. I took another drag from my cigarette before putting it out on the underside of my shoe and tucking it behind my ear. Curious as to what the free-climbing mutant was doing, I followed him over. He was looking down at the CIA trying to repair all the damage we had caused not an hour ago. They were carrying new jumbo sized windows to replace the ones we had broken and they were carting the remains of the statue off to wherever bronze statues went to die. Maybe the director needed some new shoes.

I looked at Hank out of the corner of my eye, remembering that he was only 20 and working for one of the most secretive agencies in the country. "How did you get mixed up with the CIA anyway?" I asked in a light attempt to make conversation while still keeping this curious cat in line.

"I came here after I got my doctorate." He started. "The agency has a habit of keeping track of people who graduate early, people who are applying for their masters and PhD's, and people who are attending Ivy League schools. I was a combination of all three so they sent Agent Black to observe my final presentation. He saw one of my machines, saw that it worked magnificently and thought I'd make a great addition to the agency." He said rather smoothly. Meanwhile I was sort of distracted by the amount of information he had just given me. I had never heard so many words come out of his mouth at any given time, up until that point. It was always one word responses or short sentences when need be.

"You graduated Ivy League early? Where'd you go?" I asked once I got my head back to the right place.

"Harvard."

My jaw dropped. The mousy boy standing next to me had gone to _Harvard?_ And had graduated _early_ _?!_ Holy mother of hell! Either this boy was a flippin' genius or had a crap ton of money. No matter which, I was practically in the presence of royalty. Understandably, my jaw was on the ground. Upon realizing that I quickly pulled it back into a presentable position. I then asked in a shaky tone, as if afraid of the answer, "What year did you graduate?"

He gave me an uneasy look. "1957."

Yup. He was a mother fucking genius. "Jesus shit, Hank! You were _fifteen_! When I was fifteen I was smoking cigarettes and stealing cars! You're making me look like a bad apple! Not that I'm not but that's besides the point!" I joked with a playful shove to his shoulder. He gave me a slight smile before looking out past the tree line into the distance. I was going to leave it at that but there was something I was itching to know. "Why do you seem more comfortable now?"

He smiled. Like he was waiting for me to ask that. "I guess you guys have all had your hard times with your mutations. It makes me feel less insecure about my own. Besides I'm much better when I'm not surrounded by a group of people."

I let out a laugh. "Psshh, I would've loved to have your mutation as a kid. Would've saved me from falling out of a lot of trees, therefore a lot of sprained ankles and wrists, and probably would've saved me from my tyrannical brothers. They were why I was climbing so many trees in the first place." I stretched my arms over my head, I had to admit by that point I was getting pretty tired. Still, I wanted to talk to Hank some more. He wasn't like any other guy I'd met before so that's why I kept forcing my eyelids open.

"It was hard to get normal shoes." He admitted. "Still is. I have to get about five sizes larger than any average guy my age has to just to accommodate for my mutation." Hank said with a sad tone to his voice. Clearly he was still very insecure about his feet. It's not like I just expected him to meet all of us and suddenly feel like a superstar, I just- I wanted him to feel confident.

I clapped him on the shoulder. "You should see me going through a store, then. I can't touch anything metal, nothing at all. It's already a huge risk that all I wear is jeans and denim jackets. I can't even carry change on me. If metal brushes my skin and I don't have my powers in check the metal will get conducted and I'll possibly burn my clothes or other people. Or even cause a chain of electrical shocks to the other conductive substances around." I laughed as I said this though it was one of my few insecurities. I held the power to harm several people and just the slightest thing could set me off.

"Wow." Hank exclaimed. "That must be scary, holding that sort of power inside of you." He said with a sad look to his face.

"We've _all_ got this sort of power inside of us. Strength isn't just measured in energy blasts and electrical bursts." I said with a smile. And that's true. He was definitely strong, and definitely carried unmentionable power within him. Looking back, he was much more powerful than I ever was.

His eyes connected with mine just then, thanking me silently. Then his eyes cast downward, returned back up to my face then jumped back down to my chest region, guess something peaked his interest. "Are you injured?" He asked pointing to the ace bandages around my breasts.

_Well, a girl can dream I guess._

I laughed. "No no no no. They're just wrapped to keep them out of my way. It helps when I'm running." I gave him a devious smirk. He blushed, of course, the first mention of my breasts and he's suddenly a freaking tomato. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Hank. It's just a piece of my anatomy. No need to get all bashful." I gave him a playful nudge.

He still looked uneasy, a typical thing with Hank, but underneath it I could definitely see that something was on his mind. I nudged his side a couple of times which got me a laugh. Was he ticklish? Something I would definitely explore later.

"You want to ask me something. Spill." I said harshly. Well you know what they say, whoever _they_ are. You never accomplish anything by being subtle.

"I was, well... I was wondering... c-can you conjure lightning?"

The sudden question about my powers caught me off guard. Was there anything in his freakishly large cranium besides mutations and boobs? I don't think he even thought about the latter! I sighed inwardly _and_ outwardly. "Possibly. I've never tried..." I paused. " _Weeeell_ , that's a lie. I tried once before but I don't think I prepped myself enough because it didn't work very well."

He gave me a confused look. "You have to prep?"

"It's sort of like training to run a marathon." I started. "You don't want to run the whole ten miles on your first try unless you like the feeling of shin splints and torn ligaments. You want to start out with one, and gradually increase your distance every day. It's the same sort of conundrum with my powers. If I try to create all of the raw power a lightning strike delivers, I'll probably pass out. But, unlike training for a marathon, not that I'd even have to do that because I can run circles around Emil Zátopek any day of the week, I don't need to wait days. I can ease into it a lot faster. Especially if I relocate more electricity than I conjure." I explained as best I could. By the look on Hank's face I could tell that he at least partially understood what I was trying to say. They say the best explanation is a demonstration.

Again, whoever _they_ are.

Guess I would have to show him. I rolled my shoulders and shook out my hands. As an after thought I also pulled up my hair. I reached out in front of me and concentrated. I could feel the electricity beginning to pull away from their sources and then trying to make their way into my body. Little by little I was being filled with the addictive substance. I looked at Hank, with yellow eyes by then, to deliver a warning. "You might want to take a few steps back until you're about... 500 miles _that way_. Y'know, give or take a state." I said while motioning to the area behind me.

He obliged as he swallowed past a lump threatening to form in his throat. He returned to the door that led back down into the base. I then allowed every drop of electricity to flow into me. Never, in all my life, had I harboured so much energy. Sparks with enough energy to kill a man were jumping off my skin. Good thing Hank was a good distance away from me. Once I was sure I had all the energy I could gather I opened my palm to the sky and unleashed all of it. A bolt of lightning seemingly shot up towards the sky. What an unnatural sight. I smiled up at what I had done and then looked back down at the darkness below me.

' _Shit_.'

I couldn't just let the base be completely without power. And I was dreading what I was going to have to do next. While it cost me no physical energy to relocate electricity, using my own _did_. Guess I should've thought that through more. As I should do in the hopes that it'll deter any future idiocy. I began charging my own power to return to the base. Since I previously had the needed amount in my body it didn't take long to charge it back up again. Doesn't mean that letting it all go wasn't going to feel like someone sucked the life out of me. Then I ground my teeth together and I let the electricity out, sending it back to the building I had stolen it from in the first place.

After I was completely and utterly discharged I looked back to Hank while fighting off a crippling lethargy. I gave him a thumbs up and a really tired grin. Upon closer inspection I could see that he was absolutely radiant. "That..." He laughed. "That was... _amazing!_ " He ran up to me and looked as if he was going to hug me, but he thought better of himself, the over-analyzing adorable nerd, and coughed into his raised hand. "I-I should be getting to bed." He mumbled, clearly embarrassed by his outburst.

"It is getting pretty late." I agreed. Ten minutes ago I would've tried to make him stay. But it was getting _real_ difficult to even stand up straight. Every time I started to sway I kindly asked my muscles to cut it out. Remain strong! My eyes fluttered a bit then to see Hank's back as he headed for the door. He pulled it open and before disappearing out of sight he waved shyly at me. I raised my hand to wave back but it ended up being more of a lift and fall. With a clunk I suddenly found myself alone, cold, and completely exhausted. Though I was already cold and exhausted.

I looked at my watch, just past midnight. I yawned loudly. I'm sure no one would mind of I took a nap on the roof. Perhaps I fell, perhaps I actually lowered myself, but suddenly I found myself on the gravel that covered the roof. I gave a content sigh before drifting off into nothingness.


	6. Chapter 6

**Perfect Synergy**

_"Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier."_ \- Barbara Kingslover

* * *

Have you ever fallen asleep on the roof of a building? I have, and I wouldn't recommend it, it's not pleasant. Sure, it sounds like a romantic notion to someone who hasn't actually experienced it, but in truth it is the dumbest things I had done in the past week. I woke up the next day and attempted to yawn; which was surprisingly painful. What a wonderful way to start the day. One terrible thing about falling asleep face up on the roof was the massive sunburn you would get because you didn't wake up until noon in the middle of August. I groaned loudly as I brought a hand up to my face. With the slightest touch, I was yelling through clenched teeth due to the crippling pain. I looked around for a reflective surface. No beans.

Why would I think there would be anything of the sort on a roof? I don't know, but I really wanted to see how badly I was burned. I scrambled up to a very wobbly standing position. I looked down at my legs and arms, they were burned too. I was _such_ a dumb ass! They weren't lobster red, though, a very good thing, they were just a bit pink. I stumbled over to the door that led back to the interior of the base. With lethargy pulsing through my body I found it rather difficult to keep a hold on the door handle (one of the only doors with a handle in that entire building). After many grabs, twists, and turns, I managed to yank the door open. Once I was able to see down the steps, I sincerely didn't want to take the stairs. There were several flights to that staircase, I remembered that; I didn't want to take the chance to stumble and break my hip. _I'm too young to need a hip replacement! But h_ _ow in God's name am I going to get down from here?_

I turned around very sluggishly. Man, I was getting sick of that! If I absorbed energy to juice me up I would just feel twice as exhausted as I did now once I repelled the junk! I couldn't win! Shaking the thoughts from my head I went back to searching for a better way down. Honestly, the only other way down was by falling.

Now that was an idea. If I could surround objects with an electrical field and move them, could I surround _myself_ with an electrical field to break my fall? If I hadn't been so tired I probably wouldn't have done it. But I decided in a sleep exhausted state that it seemed like the best option available! Why I didn't just go down the stairs with an electrical field surrounding me as a precaution still evades me. I was a real adrenaline junkie in my youth, and by youth I mean when I was sixteen, three and a half months ago. Gingerly, I began towards the edge of the roof. I peered over the edge into the courtyard: no passerby's. Perfect!

I walked back from the roof, got down into a running stance, and started a countdown.

"Three..."

I sank even lower into the gravel, causing it to cry out underneath my shoe.

"Two..."

I blanched my knuckles against the roof and summoned an electrical field around me.

"One!"

I bolted like a rocket off the roof. I was about fifty-seven percent sure that I had summoned a powerful enough electrical field to withstand my body impacting with the ground. As I soared through the air, time seemed to stop. Everything passed by me in slow motion, giving me the perfect chance to full heartedly regret the decision I had just made.

_I'm going to fucking die!_ I thought morbidly to myself. How could I do this? Why was I such an idiot? I have no clue. But, as I neared the ground, I just about pissed my pants. My feet connected harshly with the grass and pain shot up to my knees. I rolled over in pain. My hips didn't hurt, my thighs didn't hurt... only my shins.

"Shin splints! _Level Mutant!_ " I howled into the sky as I was rolling on my back in pure crippling pain. _Of course I'd jump off a roof and just get killer shin splints from it! Why didn't I even_ consider _that?_ _Wow. I hate my life_. See, if I had done proper jump and roll procedure, I'm sure my shins would've bother me in the slightest. But, as I said, sleep deprived. I wasn't making very good decisions. After successfully screaming away seventy percent of the pain I sat up and started to massage the wounded appendages. _Dear Gandhi! Never doing that again! Well, probably not ever. With more preparation it was surely doable. But none of that, my legs hurt like a sonava!_

I was probably sitting in the middle of the courtyard for about four minutes when I finally saw someone familiar. A certain shy researcher to be exact!

"Hank! Help!" I called to him while waving; hoping desperately that his attention would be caught by my flailing arms. Hank would know what to do in a situation like this, right?

The boy in question turned at the sound of my voice. He looked behind him, in front of him, above him, _Yes, Hank, I can fucking fly_. After his eyes wandered for a second they found mine and he came jogging over to me. As he ventured closer his eyes widened. _Wha-what? Is there something on my face? Say a huge ass sunburn, perhaps?_

He tweaked his glasses and muttered in disbelief, "You're burned..."

My eyes nearly rolled out of my head. "Thanks a lot, _Sherlock._ Now, let's pay less attention to my beautiful face and more to my throbbing shins!" I said sarcastically while pointing to said shins. Hank blushed but lowered to the ground to examine them. Sorry Hank. I wasn't in a particularly good mood. _  
_

He barely dusted his fingers over my skin and I yelped out in pain. "If that hurt you, these are pretty bad. How did you do this?" He inquired; never taking his eyes off my throbbing legs. If I hadn't known better, I would've accused him of being a pervert and I would've kicked him square in the chin. Good thing Hank didn't have a single dirty thought in that brilliant head of his, because I've got one mean kick.

I realized I was taking forever to respond. Too busy thinking about Hank. "I jumped off the roof." Was my anticipated if not completely indifferent reply.

I honestly didn't know a jaw could drop as low as Hank's did without dislocating. Well, you learn something new every day.

"You- what? Why!" He stammered and then proceeded to gently probe my hips and back. His scientific fingers, dare I say, gave me chills.

_Down girl_. I told myself. It wasn't my fault. No guy had ever treated me so tenderly, neither of the guys I'd slept with, not my brothers, don't get me wrong they treat me well, they just imagine me as one of the guys, and definitely not the friends I had made over the years. The only people to ever treat me like that were my mother and Jules. And last I checked they weren't sporting large schlongs between their leg. It was nice to have someone of the opposite sex who cared about your general well being and have completely innocent intentions.

I let Hank finish his examination before I bothered to explain myself. "I decided in extreme exhaustion that it would be cool to jump off the roof. I surrounded myself with an electrical field, ran to the edge of the roof, and jumped. Not really my smartest idea." I admitted. Of course it wasn't my smartest idea! My smartest idea was to stick scissors in an electrical outlet _by far_.

"Did you fall asleep up here?" I just blinked at him. Obviously. He sighed whilst shaking his head. He gave me a weak smile before continuing. "Sadly there's nothing more I can do besides the traditional treatment for shin splints. Wrapping, icing, and rest. But I can definitely help with that burn."

Well that certainly was good news! I knew I kept Hank around for something! Aside from being so gosh darn cute!

"You can? How can you do that?" I asked in disbelief and awe. To my knowledge there was no way to reduce sunburn redness other than time. And unless Hank had a time machine, which he honestly could have; the kids a freaking genius, he wouldn't be able to help me.

"Well," He pushed his glasses up with his index finger, "a sun burn is just a reaction the body uses to defend itself when it feels as if the DNA in your skin is being damaged. Melanin is released and it produces a mild, harmless, heat to protect the skin. With a topical cream I accidentally invented while trying to make something else I can completely eliminate the swelling and increase recovery. Instead of healing in days, a sun burn vanishes in hours!"

Wow. Hank was such a cute nerd! Who am I kidding; he's _still_ a cute nerd. _My_ nerd. Spoilers.

"Sounds great. But what did you originally create the cream for?" I asked innocently.

This seemed to faze him, which confused me. "I-it was for a... ummm... a science experiment! A-a-at Harvard!" He gave me a very flustered smile. "But enough of that! I'll take you to my lab to get you patched up!"

His sudden lack of composure surprised me. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit curious. I was also about a hundred and two percent sure he was telling one big fib because, one, he turned redder than my sunburn, two, he looked at his feet as he said it.

"Alright..." I finally allowed. Hank stood first then offered me a helping hand. I placed my hand in his and he pulled me into a standing position with surprising ease. He then wrapped my right arm over his shoulders and helped me walk towards, what I was guessing was, his lab. We spent the duration of our trip in complete silence. All thanks to him being a guilty liar. He knew deep down that I wasn't going to drop our previous conversation and that made him more nervous than usual. I knew that he was lying and that made me upset! _I can handle the truth!_

A few minutes later, we came to a metal door labelled, Henry McCoy, CIA Researcher & Engineer. So I assumed it was his lab and that Henry was his real name. He let go of me momentarily to reach into his lab coat, which I hadn't even realized he was wearing, only to pull out a ring of keys. It seemed he just picked a random one and jammed it in the dead bolt on the door. Turns out, it wasn't a random key at all! The tumblers inside the lock turned with the key and the door opened. Well, either it wasn't a random key and Hank was really good at finding his key or it was random and he was one lucky bastard! Those thoughts stopped in their tracks when I saw the interior of Hanks lab. It was so huge! It was around the size of my freaking _house_. _Hoooooo_ ly _shit!_ There were lights going off everywhere on every sort of machinery, metals tools glimmered in the sun light from the few windows there were, there was a symphony of beeps, clicks, and whirls, and vials of all colours adorned shelves on nearly every inch of the four walls. It really was amazing; they treated Hank like a scientific king! I was so caught up in everything I didn't notice when Hank put my arm back over his shoulders and led me towards a metal examination table in the middle of the room.

Gently, he lifted me onto the table as if I weighed no more than a feather and went to one of the several cabinets on the back wall. I finally came back to reality just as Hank returned with a vial of the cream, at least I assumed it was the cream, and began rubbing it on my arms. He was looking at me as if he wanted a response to something.

"Sorry, you say something?" I asked, hoping that he had actually said something and he wasn't being creepy.

He smiled. "Just wondering where you got that scar on your knee."

Ah. The knee injury from a gymnastics meet in 1959. I had just turned fourteen and I was about ready to compete in the New Mexico Gymnastic Regional. See, I was actually brought up down near Mexico, but when my mother enrolled me in a bunch of all girls boarding schools, the one in Maine was the only one that wanted me. I was too much trouble for the rest of them, too many fights and too many bad grades. Back to gymnastics. Gymnastics was the only girly type sport I'd do because of the physicality. I love tumbling, always have, always will. But that didn't stop me from landing a triple flip on a straight leg. The stupidest thing I could've done at the time, I did. Tremendously! My knee practically snapped out of place and my knee cap was jutting out of my skin. There was blood everywhere. I wanted to keep going but my coach sent me straight to the hospital. They operated that same night to repair the damage done to my patella, fancy nerd word for knee, and told me I could never do gymnastics again. That didn't stop me from cycling, swimming, playing soccer, playing lacrosse, wrestling, or running. Oh, nor did it stop me from doing gymnastics. I'm just a regular girl who didn't know when to quit. Well, actually I do. The time to quit is _never_. But now I have a fake knee cap made of a dense polymer and hardly any nerves left in my actual knee. _Tragic_.

"I had surgery done on it." Was my half assed response. No need to go into the gory details and scare off the frightened little chipmunk that was Hank. It seemed as though he was going to accept my terrible answer and said nothing more. I noticed his hand trembling slightly against me and don't think I didn't see the blush creeping across his cheeks. I put a hand on his forearm and said, "I can do the rest if you want."

He looked at me with those adorable blue eyes of his, adjusted his glasses, and blushed a deep crimson. "Yeah, th-that sounds g-good." He nodded before leaving to do something else. As he escaped he ran into the other examining table next to me and then hurried off to a desk on the far wall. He was still within ten feet of me so I could see him knocking pencil containers over. What a cutie. I then continued what the boy had started and then moved onto my legs. Then, completely out of the blue, and I mean this was nothing close to what we are talking about, he asked, "Wh-why do you smoke?"

I had not expected that. Answer was easy enough, though. "My brothers all do it, my cousins and uncles all do it, and so does my father. Correction on the brother statement, my little brother doesn't. Or he shouldn't be smoking. If he is, at his age? I will kill that little bitch!" I ranted slightly towards the end of that. And for that I apologize. I looked towards Hank who was giving me the slightest smile which I found myself returning.

"You want a mirror for your face?" He asked as he picked one up. He jostled it a bit with his hand and it caught some of the overhead light. By some, I mean all. And of course that reflection went straight into my eyes. I was blinded.

" _Owwww!_ " I yelped as I brought my hands up to my injured eyes. All I could see was blotches of white, yellow, green, and fuchsia across my visual horizon. I heard Hank get up from his desk, I heard his footsteps come towards me, and then I felt his presence in front of me.

A hand brushed mine out of the way. "Open your eyes, please." Hank asked so I kindly obliged. I still couldn't see anything so I had no idea what he was looking at. Guess I wouldn't need the mirror after all.

"You're going to have to apply the stuff to my face because I cannot, for the life of me, see a goddamn thing." I groaned. The air around suddenly became charged with nervousness. Was he seriously getting all wound up from that simple request? I guess he was. He placed two fingers that were covered in the cream against my face and spread it around with shaky hands. At least he didn't piss himself or didn't run out of the room screaming. Which I honestly thought he might do still. Guess this was as good of a time as ever to ask what he first intended the cream to be used for. "You never did tell me what you originally concocted this stuff for."

You could practically hear the poor boy try to swallow the lump in his throat. "I-it's nothing important."

Even though I couldn't actually see him I allowed my face to contort into a sarcastic eyebrow arch and a skeptic frown. I _sincerely_ hoped that I didn't look like I had to take a huge dump.

"I... I had manufactured the salve in hopes it would... that it would cure my mutation..." He mumbled, causing his fingers to shake more. He actually got some in my mouth, I gagged and he apologized.

"Why would you want to cure it?" I asked in the gentlest voice I could manage as I spat out the bitter paste.

"I don't want to feel... different..." Hank mumbled again, this time he made sure not to let his coordination be affected by his nervousness.

I looked at him, well, I did my best, placed a hand on the arm closest to me, and squeezed slightly. "Hank, you don't need to hide anymore. We all love you as you are, mutated feet and all."

"That doesn't matter when everyone else sees my feet and they think I'm some sort of monster..." He muttered. I could tell by his voice that he was about to cry. Not a girly cry, but he would shed a tear or two.

I grabbed, more like fumbled for, his chin with my other hand and angled it towards me.

"What does it matter what the world thinks of you? Do you think Einstein would've pretended to be a dumb ass to fit in with everyone else? What about da Vinci? He was all over the map! He was a painter, a sculptor, a physicist, an architect, and so much more! You think that _he_ wanted to fit in? Of course not. So there is no need to hide any of _your_ brilliance either, from your brilliant mind to your even more brilliant feet. There is no reason you should have to hide. There's nothing wrong with you and everything wrong with every single person who tells you otherwise! Show off those amazing feet of yours and don't you ever hold back!"

"But..."

"No buts! You are a mutant, I am a mutant, our closest friends are all mutants. Sure, we all had those periods of doubt when we wanted to hide what we could do to fit in. But let me tell you this, I buried my abilities deep down inside and became so depressed that I started drinking. I only buried them because I was afraid of what my parents would say or how they would react. Trust me; they were more pissed about the alcohol! There are going to be people out there who will ridicule you for being different you'll just have to turn around, stick your middle finger right in their face and tell them to shove it! If they've got a problem with the natural you, they're the ones who should change. Not you."

My vision finally returned, just in time for me to see Hank smile at me. This smile was bigger than all the others, it was so sincere. In some way I thought that I got through to him, which is definitely good. I couldn't watch Hank retreating into his cocoon any longer. I removed my hand from his chin and clasped his shoulder. No words were spoken. Then again, words weren't necessary after that amazing pep talk. Well, that was until I caught sight of something underneath Hank's desk.

"Hey... is that a soccer ball?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Perfect Synergy**

" _Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win._ " – Denis Waitley

* * *

"Uhh... yes, that's a soccer ball."

"We should use it."

"What?"

"We should have a mutant soccer game!"

"I don't know... I haven't... haven't played in a couple of y-years."

"All the more reason for us to play! Come on, Hank, don't be a stick in the mud!"

"I-I guess it could be... fun?"

"That's the spirit! Now we need to find everyone else!"

Little did I know that that light-hearted conversation would have led to what it did. After it quite literally took us five hours to find everyone I got them on board the soccer train. And that led us to the only place large enough to sponsor our latest endeavour. So, there we stood. In the open lawn that housed that weird golfball structure. Three on three with Angel cheering us on, she didn't pack any shoes appropriate for running. We had decided that the teams would be Raven, Darwin, and I versus Alex, Sean, and Hank respectively. During our trip to find the others I also happened to discover, and by discover I mean I forced it out of him, that Hank was a star soccer player on every team he played with. Sexy. Did I really just say that? Actually, I did when he told me. Do I even need to mention the fact that he blushed? No? Good. But he did. And it was adorable.

Again, there we stood. Sean and myself had taken off our shoes to serve as the team's goal posts. And may I just say that his feet smelled like rotten oranges dipped in vinegar? Yes? Good. Because they seriously did. And it was rancid. So as we all suffocated on the disgusting foot odor we were deciding how to tell the difference between the teams. We couldn't do the colour of the shirts we were wearing because we were all wearing completely different colours. I personally wanted to do shirts versus skins. Not because I wanted to see Alex shirtless or anything like that. Sorry Hank. I was rooting for the street fighter who had wicked biceps. Seeing as we were getting nowhere, guess I would voice my opinion.

"How about shirts versus skins? The boys'll be skins, and Raven, Darwin, and I'll be shirts." I suggested not so innocently. I'm not going to deny any ulterior motives I had that day. They were there. And the force was strong with these ones.

The guys seemed okay with the situation dealt to them, except for Hank, of course. He did _not_ feel comfortable with taking off his shirt. Honestly he could barely stand taking off his shoes much less his clothes. He actually raised his hand slightly. "Umm... could we not...?" He muttered.

I lowered him the most sarcastic look I could muster. "Hank, I'm sure no one is going to make fun of you for your physique. I actually think that Sean is skinnier than you." I offered. Again, sorry Hank, I _reeeeally_ wanted Alex to take his shirt off! _Ahem_. Anyways!

Hank blushed but he looked like he was going to comply. He turned towards his team who were already stripping their shirts. With trembling fingers he began working at the buttons of his flannel. Not that I actually noticed, I was too busy checking out Alex, and Sean surprisingly. I was right, Alex had a smoking body. Don't think that I was crushing on the angry blonde or anything; I just appreciated a well-toned bod. I appreciated that shit like fine art. Even Sean wasn't a complete bum; he had some abs, nice abs, runner's abs. I heard Raven giggle behind me. These boys were turning out to be a right treat to look at! And I actually meant all of the boys. Hank had shed his tie, shirt, and glasses giving him the sexiest stature I had ever seen. Who knew that underneath his sheltered exterior he had a true soccer boy physique? His hair was slightly ruffled, his face and neck were nice and flush, and I couldn't help but notice the faint six-pac that he was sporting. Yes. That day was a good day.

"Now that that's settled," I paused to rip off my own shirt, "let the games begin!"

Too bad the game couldn't begin because the guys were all staring at me like I was practically naked. I had my ace bandages secured around my chest so I wasn't exposed or anything but that didn't stop them from firmly planting their jaws on the ground. With a traditional roll of my eyes I picked up Hank's soccer ball off the ground.

"Yes, I'm shirtless. Can we please get on with this soccer game before I turn thirty?" I asked sarcastically as I juggled the ball on my knees.

"Just wondering..." Alex started. "Why did you opt to be shirts if you were just going to rip yours off anyway?"

"Because, my angry darling blonde, I wanted to see you shirtless so you guys got skins." I gave him a sweet smile and he blushed the slightest in return. How cute. He wasn't the total badass he wanted us all to believe he was.

With a glance towards Hank I saw that he looked a little dejected. "You're not too hard to look at either, Hank." I gave him a wink and continued to juggle the soccer ball.

Finally, someone else spoke. "Can we please get this game started?" Raven complained from behind me. Guess she could be a little annoying but she had a point. We were spending more time talking and less time shoving each other into the mud. Yes, mud. It was probably raining a couple of days prior. I stopped juggling the ball in time to notice Hank was taking off his shoes. It was probably easier for him to run without his feet being cramped into the shoes he insisted on wearing.

"They're just trying to prevent inevitable." Darwin said suddenly. "Because, inevitably, we're going to kick their asses!"

"Bring it!" Alex yelled playfully before he ushered his team to get into position. We did the same. Raven headed back into the 'goal' while Darwin and I were playing offense. On the other team, surprisingly, Sean was the goalie and Alex and Hank were on the offensive. Actually, it made sense. The other two boys probably didn't want to have to smell Sean's nasty feet.

I placed the ball on the ground in between Alex and myself. He was grinning deviously at me. Did the boy seriously think he could take me? Hmm. Cute. But this wasn't my first rodeo buster!

We had instructed Angel to shoot a ball of acid into the sky to signal the start of the game. Other than that, she would just be cheering the teams on. We heard the sound of acid leaving her mouth and I quickly got the ball away from Alex and towards Darwin. Once I knew the ball was traveling in the right direction I started heading towards the other teams goal. Hank didn't miss a beat. He was on me the second I took off. Darwin kicked the ball up, kicked it up a bit more and used his head to hit it over to me. I caught it with my chest. I let it bounce off, thank you tiny boobs, and I ran with it. I was getting pretty close to the goal when Hank tried to get the ball from me. He tried a little too late, I gave the ball a swift kick with my left foot and it went straight into the goal. Sean had made a valiant dive for it but he wasn't fast enough. The ball shot off into the distance as I jumped up and down and as Sean went to retrieve the ball before it was lost to us forever.

"Go Max! _Woo!_ " Angel screamed from the side lines. I turned around to acknowledge her but all I saw was Hank with a thin layer of sweat already forming over his pale skin, giving it a slight sheen. Man... was it getting hot or what? I clapped him on the back before running back over to my side of the field. Darwin came over towards me and gave me a high five.

"That was a lucky shot!" Sean cried from off in the distance.

"You wish!" I yelled back.

Raven came out of her goal just then to give me a hug. "You're _really_ good at this, Max! Who knew?"

I gave her a smile as Sean put the ball back in play. ' _Time to get back into the game!_ ' I assured myself.

Sean tossed the ball over his head towards Alex who began dribbling it towards Raven, who more than likely than not wouldn't make a true effort to stop the ball. Didn't matter though because Darwin successfully kicked the ball out from under him and towards me. Well, I assume he tried to kick the ball towards me but it ended up right in the path of Hank. And Hank didn't see the ball until it was too late. He stepped right on the ball and I winced in anticipation of what I _thought_ was to come. To my surprise, he didn't fall back on his ass. Hank threw his weight forward, brought his arms down to do a handspring, and just as his body started to follow the direction of his flip he flung the ball right between my shoes and right past Raven. Only one possible explanation for how he was able to grip a ball with his feet.

' _Damn cheat! He was holding onto the ball with his mutation!_ ' I yelled in my head. I ran up to the mutant who had just landed on his ass, oh _now_ he lands where he should, and was currently laughing at the spectacle he had just performed. I stopped a couple of feet in front of him; he looked _really_ handsome when he laughed. I allowed myself a minute to appreciate his beauty. He didn't look reserved, he didn't look scared; he looked unabashed and happy. I shook my head and continued to approach him. I offered him a helping hand which he took while laughing, still. Once he was standing again I began pounding on his chest with clenched fists.

"You ass! No using your powers!" I said between pounds. Hank was still laughing. We looked back to everyone else, Darwin was going after the ball, and everyone else was so shocked and impressed by Hank they couldn't speak. Finally, Angel began cheering. Alex was the next to break out of his daze, then Sean, and the two boys ran up to their teammate.

"That was amazing!" Sean beamed.

Hank blushed slightly and scratched the back of his head. "If I can't use my 'powers' then I won't be able to play." He said with a bit of a smart ass tone to his voice. Sports really do change some people!

"No chance of that! I call Hank for every soccer game after this one!" Alex yelled so everyone could hear. I punched him for that. He rubbed his arm. "Ow! The fuck was that for?"

"That was for being an ass, Mister Grumpy Pants." Childish, I know. But it was the best I could think of. I can't give a witty response to _everything_ now can I? Alex gave me a devilish smirk regardless. He bent over, wrapped his arms around my thighs, and took me down to the ground. I felt mud splatter on my back and it was cold. Alex tried to get up after that but I pulled him back and quickly got up to hide behind Hank. I saw Darwin return at that point only to have a clump of mud splattered on my head. I turned around thinking I would see Sean or Alex. Actually, it was Raven. I gasped just before I tackled her. So much for a soccer game! Soon, we were all covered in mud and wrestling each other to the ground. Mud wrestling with a couple of shirtless guys? I deem that an appropriate substitute to watching a couple of shirtless guys play soccer.


	8. Chapter 8

**Perfect Synergy**

" _It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better thing."_ – Theodore Roosevelt

* * *

I've already explained to you how most people in the world would never experience anything they couldn't explain with logic. Most people in the world also couldn't truthfully say they experienced something like I did later that day we played soccer together. Pure and utter terror. That is one experience I'm sure would haunt most people, as it haunted me. How I dearly wished that it had never happened at all. It's the sort of thing you think back on and you feel sick to your stomach. And as I was washing the sweat and mud from my skin I can honestly say I had no idea what would transpire in just a couple of hours. Perhaps if I hadn't gotten ahead of myself I wouldn't have lost a close friend to the cold clutches of death. Perhaps I had nothing to do with it.

I'll never know now.

Still, there I stood, completely unaware of what would happen in the next hour. I was stark naked underneath the cascade of steaming water, washing my skin of the filth that had accumulated atop of it. Sure, I'm a tomboy, but I don't like feeling like I'm encased in a sweat cocoon. I don't think anyone does. Luckily for me the showers were in the hallway to my room (which also happened to be where all of our rooms were). In the stall next to me was my dear friend, Raven, who had managed to get her ears plugged by mud. I have no idea how she did it! It had nothing to do with the mud I threw at her I'm sure!

"I'm going to get you back for this!" Raven joked from the other side of the concrete wall that separated us. I laughed at her not-so threatening promise as I began scrubbing my lifeless hair.

The rest of our showering was spent in moderate silence. We both decided it was rather awkward to start a conversation while neither of us were wearing clothes. I finished my shower before Raven, I didn't like to linger. There were places to go, mutants to see, agents to annoy. It was truly the best life I could've asked for. I should've known better. I grabbed the towel I had laid out for myself and I wrapped it around my chest. Then, in a sudden urge to do something spontaneous, I grabbed Raven's towel and whipped her with it.

She squealed at the impact but was unable to chase me due to the fact I was already booking it out of there and she was, well, naked. I pushed the swinging door that led out into the hallway open and started towards my room when I stumbled into someone/something and I dropped my towel because of it. I looked down, grabbed the towel, and put it back into place.

"So you actually have boobs. Who knew?" A certain redhead joked. I glared at Sean who seemed to have just taken a shower as well. His curly red locks were plastered against his forehead and skin still seemed a little wet. Luckily for me he had put on a pair of jeans. How embarrassing would it have been of we were both naked?

I gave the redhead a shove just as he started waving to somebody. I turned to see the heel of a shoe disappear into the room to the right of the showers. _Wonder who that was_.

Sean smirked. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Hank redder!"

 _Oh my Gandhi._  I smacked my forehead with my palm. Hank finally got the real life anatomy lesson he so desperately needed but I didn't want to be from me! There was no doubt in my mind that Hank was the sweetest guy I had ever met, he just wasn't my type! Not to mention that he had a thing for Raven! Well the damage had been done. I'd have to apologize to him later.

"Aww, you two are so _cute_." Sean joked before heading back to his own room across the hall from Hank's.

"He's not my type!" I hissed at him.

He gave me a wink and entered his room. The door shutting behind him forced me into action. Raven told me that my room was next to Sean's. So that was either the door in front of the showers or the one on the other side. I tried the one right across from the showers. I placed my wet hand on the handle and tested it, the door didn't open!

 _Is_ _it stuck?_  I gave it a bit of a shove and it opened.

If this was my room I was going to go complain. But it wasn't, so I didn't. It was already occupied and not by my junk. By the looks of it someone had been there for several days, and by looking at the clothing neatly folded and the infinite number of books I would've guessed that it was Charles's room. I glanced around. That man really was a bit OCD. I was about to head out when something caught my eye, Charles' paperboy bag. Cigarettes? Possibly, hopefully!

I ripped open the bag and there they were. Twelve cartons of pure smokey greatness. Why did I have so many packs? Well, whenever someone came to visit me or whenever I went home over holiday breaks people would give me a pack. Those people being my brothers. I've accumulated a lot because it's not really accommodating to the school rules to smoke. You smoked only where you could which was mostly the roof. Problem here was that I was stark naked and I wanted to carry twelve packs of Camels out of a room that wasn't my own. Oh well. It was two doors to my left I'd survive. I grabbed the bag, deciding it would be easier to empty them out there and then bring the bag back.

Carefully and quietly I exited Charles's room. I kept one hand clasping the towel as I scooted down the hall to my own abode. Making sure no one was looking I pushed my door open only to see Darwin sitting on, what I thought to be, my bed reading some sort of book. ' _Dammit!_ ' I swore to myself. It still wasn't my room.

"Sorry for intruding, Raven told me my room was next to Sean's. Clearly it's not since I've been to both rooms on either side of his and I arrived in Charles and Darwin land. No Max land. I'm leaving. Goodbye." I finished my monologue and left the same way I came. I didn't even give Darwin a chance to respond, I just headed on out of there. Again, I was naked. You really can't blame me.

First, I was going to bang like hell on Sean's door to make sure that it indeed was his room. I planted both feet on the floor in front of his door, squeezed my hands around Charles' bag and my towel and pounded on the door with the heel of my foot. Maybe I should try knocking more often. The door in front of me opened and there stood in a muscle tee and jeans: Alex. ' _Dammit!_ '

I gave him a second to apprehend that I was barely wearing anything before asking. "Is the pothead in here?"

Alex looked at me as if I was speaking Arabic. I snapped twice in his face and he seemed to come back to reality. "Oh, yeah. Come on in." He stepped back to let me through. I walked past him to see Sean lounging shirtless on Alex's bed. He gave me a goofy smile.

"Hey! What can I do you for, miss?" He slurred slightly, my eyes going straight to the joint in between his fingers.

 _Seriously, Sean. Give it a rest!_  I rolled my eyes at the sight. "Where the hell is your room?" I asked bluntly. I was getting sick and tired of wandering around the halls with nothing to guard myself from the world. If someone jumped me it would be very hard to defend myself without flashing him. If I had to though I would in a heartbeat. I should've brought some clothes into the showers like Raven had but I hadn't accounted for the chaos that would transpire after my shower because, well, I sort of assumed our rooms had our names on them. I hadn't even _been_ in my room yet! Raven dropped off my bag in my room for me and that was that! I guess that's what I get for being lazy!

The red head shoved himself off the bed. "Need help finding your room?"

That question didn't warrant a response. I just placed one hand, the hand holding Charles' bag, on my hip and gave Sean the sassiest look I could muster.

"I'll take that as a yes." He smirked. He put out his joint on his jeans, tucked it behind his ear, and headed out the door Alex was still holding open. Hesitantly, I followed.

We headed to our right, past Charles's room, past the showers, and then two doors left of the showers we stopped. Sean made an over exaggerated bow and gestured to the door to his right. I opened it and surely, there it was, my room. My bag was on my bed and Raven left some of her clothes here for me to wear. How sweet of her! And I'm actually being sincere.

"Isn't that Charles's bag?" Sean asked from behind me before I slammed the door in his face. I was still a _bit_ spiteful I suppose.

So I decided it was about time that I put some clothes on after I paraded around the base naked for a good while to give all the guys observing the security tapes a little show. I grabbed a pair of underwear out of my bag, a pair of washed out blue jeans, and a white long sleeved fitted shirt that Raven left me. Oh, and my ace bandages. Can't forget those puppies! I then proceeded to get dressed. Don't want to bore you with the details of that. I quickly dumped out my packs of cigarettes so I could run to Charles's room, toss the bag, and run right back to my own. Carefully I opened my door and peered out. No one in sight. Alright Watson, looks like the coast was clear! But now I had to remember two to the right and across the hall and then _not_ forget that. I creeped out of my room slowly, my grip tightening around the bag.

Quietly I tiptoed back to Charles's room. ' _Remember, Max, the door sticks_.' I twisted the handle and gave the door a nice hearty shove. I stumbled into the room, tossed the bag back where I found it, and quickly left before anyone was none the wiser! Just as the door shut behind me the door across from mine opened and a familiar mocha skinned girl peered out.

"What's with all the doors opening and closing?" Angel asked and she sounded a little irritated. Made sense. Pretty sure I had opened about seven doors in the past minute.

"I got lost, but I'm good now!" I reassured her as she shrugged and ducked back into her room. Giving myself just a moment to smile at her retreating figure, I ran back to my room the moment she shut her door. I'll admit, I had a little bit of trouble with the handle. Too used to the countless swinging doors all throughout the base. They were right to believe I was too stupid to operate handles accordingly. After a second I finally got it open. Once inside I finally felt as if I could relax. I fell face first on my bed and allowed myself a second or two of rest.

That second or two turned into a few minutes. When I came to there was someone knocking at my door. I lifted my head from my sheets, out of the puddle of drool I'm not ashamed to admit I made, and mumbled a groggy acknowledgment. The door opened and a bubbly blonde pushed her way through. A bubbly blonde with dry hair... How long had I been asleep?

"Wow, that's not lady like!" Raven laughed, probably meaning my drool. I raised my middle finger towards her as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. She laughed. "Come on pumpkin wipe that shmuck off your face, it's time to get up!"

"Hnnnngh." I groaned.

"All us mutants are going to hang out in the break room again tonight." She replied like I had asked a question.

"Nnnnnn." I continued to groan.

"Yes, all us mutants includes you." Wow, she is really good at understanding my unintelligible mumbles and grumbles! I had no idea I was even saying anything!

I guess I decided to stop protesting because I stood up from my bed, ruffled my slightly damp hair, wiped my drool on my sleeve, and tried to open my eyes. Too bright, but I'd have to grin and bear it. Actually, frown and bear it but that's not the correct phrase. "Let's get this over with." I raked a hand down my face.

"That's the spirit!" Raven grabbed my hand and did that thing that she loves most, dragging me about the base. Joy.

Good thing I was completely out of it because before I knew it I was amongst my friends once more. Granted, I was asleep on the coffee table and Sean kept nudging me with his nasty foot. Several times I nearly fell off the table swatting it away. I could hear everyone snickering, chuckling, chortling, or giggling around me.

"Think we should shove her off?" Raven or Angel asked, I was still too sleepy to determine whose voice belonged to whom but it was surely female.

I didn't even have time to object. I was promptly shoved from the table and onto the carpeted ground. I wouldn't have minded this much except for the fact I was lying on two pairs of feet. Uncomfortable feet.

"Guys, stop torturing her." Darwin called from his position at the pinball machine. I was lucid enough to single out his unique voice.

 _At least someone's on my side_.

Finally, I gave up. I opened my overly tired eyes, sadly I always get like this after I fall asleep. If I don't get at least an hour I won't be able to function. I then began to lift myself up to standing. Much to the discomfort of the owners of the feet I was crushing. And eventually there I was, standing in front of Hank and Sean, realizing that my left boob really hurt. Must've been what was lying on, Hank's shoes. I then trudged over to one of the arm chairs and plopped down. Three of the four mutants occupying the two couches were laughing hysterically. Hank was at least chuckling silently. I gave them all the finger, regardless.

"Awww, don't be like that!" Sean laughed.

"You're lucky I haven't punched you in the face, ginger boy." I groaned with a yawn.

"Jesus, man, you're _killin'_ me!" Darwin complained from across the room.

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of spare time." Alex replied. I turned to look at Alex's score. Near 2,000. That boy was damn good at pinball.

When I turned back to look out the recently fixed display window overlooking the courtyard I saw two agents entering my field of view stage left. I was severely hoping they would just pass by like all the other agents had, but of course they didn't! They stopped right in the centre of the window. One of them extended their arms wide and exclaimed, "Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town! Hey, come on honey give us a little," He made a noise mocking Angel's flying and made flapping motions with his hands. Clearly meant in a derogatory way. Ass.

No one obliged the disgusting pig in front of us. I have to admit, I woke up a little after he spoke. He stirred the ball of Dugan rage inside of me. Didn't take much but we didn't sit around while other people were taking flak. We stood tall and knocked assholes down.

"No? Come on, let's see the foot." The agent said switching attention from insecure former stripper to insecure CIA researcher. The agent reached towards the ground and brought his foot towards it, emphasizing his point. Thank God that window was between us or I would've throttled him.

Much to our surprise, Hank stood with a mouth full of cashews. The standing part was surprising, not the cashews. Who didn't love cashews?

"There it is, come on, Bigfoot." Agent Asswipe continued. Hank actually approached him. Well, he was walking in that general direction but I wasn't quite sure what he was thinking. I started to understand when he was walking towards the button that controlled the curtains. Agent Asswipe seemed to make the connections around the same time that I did, "Hey, hey, come on, _heeeey!_ " He whined as Hank shut the curtains and gave him a nice proper salute goodbye. Good for you, Hank!

When Hank sat back down I noticed the odd face Angel was making. It wasn't a funny sort of odd, more like a sad odd. Good thing Raven noticed too because I could not deal with tears if my life depended on it.

"They're just guys being stupid." Raven consoled, rubbing Angel's upper arm as she did.

Angel turned to look at her friend with a venomous expression painted across her face. "Guys being stupid I can handle, okay? I've handled them my whole life. But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes _off_ then the way those ones stare at me." She explained with a stone cold resolute.

"At us." Raven tacked onto the end of Angel's sentence. Okay, even I knew not to do that to a girl who was having a moment. Sometimes Raven really needed to keep quiet and just simply listen.

Suddenly, in the midst of everything that wasn't happening, I could feel something... something not entirely natural. I could feel increased heart rates all throughout the base. And before you ask, yes I can feel heart beats. Only because they're influenced by the natural electrical currents through all living things. But this was strange, it was like every adult on the base was having a heart attack. That's when the thuds could be heard and the high heart rates flat lined. Something wasn't right, and by 'wasn't right' what I really meant was 'was severely wrong'.

It wasn't long before the thuds started catching everyone else's attention.

"What was that?" Darwin asked the universe, "I don't know... something doesn't feel right." He muttered to himself. Darwin left Alex's pinball company to approach the curtained window. Alex followed after shooting one last ball. Actually we all got up from where we were sitting to look out the window as Darwin pushed the curtain button. At a glance, nothing seemed off. But we all had better instincts than that. Years of watching every move we make to make sure no one knows of the special powers we possess keeps us all agile, alert, and aware. Triple A. Just like my boobs. Sorry, trying to break the tension. Back in the present we all craned our necks up to the sky. There were two distinct black shapes floating against the light of the moon. Now that certainly wasn't right.

"What is that...?" Darwin asked just as one of the two shapes vanished in a puff of smoke and the other began to plummet towards the ground.

A harsh tenor scream resonated throughout the base. It got louder and louder as the shape descended. We all knew that it wasn't just a shape. It's just a lot easier to face it if you pretend that you don't know. But when it hit the ground with a deafening crack, that scream fell silent and another one bubbled out of Raven beside me. We all jumped back a bit at the impact, and a few of us jumped back even more when we saw that it was Agent Black bleeding all over the pavement outside the window. The one agent that we all truly enjoyed, he was kind, gentle, and most of all, understanding and accepting. He had believed in mutants (or something similar to us) before he even met us. We just solidified his theories.

I stopped thinking about Agent Black since more and more bodies met his same fate. Raven cowered into me, tears threatening to burst from her green eyes. We watched as agents began filing out of miscellaneous doors. Each of them was packing some heavy artillery. Some of them were in protective, some weren't. Looks like they were going to need it. One of the unprotected agents pounded on the window we had backed away from.

"Get back, get back! Do _not_ leave that room, we're under attack!" He yelled just as a man with red skin in a black suit appeared where the statue once stood with a menacing blade in each hand.

" _Dumb ass! Turn around!_ " I screamed, effectively causing the man to do just that. He commanded his fellow agents to shoot. Which they did.

Not that it mattered how many bullets they fired, the red skinned man was, one, probably a mutant, and two, materializing and disappearing before a bullet could even reach him. As the man who told us to stand back started firing the blade wielding possible mutant, who looked dangerously close to the devil, appeared behind him and forced him to shoot out the window before killing him quickly. Outside the other window, a tornado raged across the field we had played soccer on. It crossed paths with the golfball structure, successfully ripping it to shreds.

One by one, the agents began to fall. That eery flat-lining that I felt earlier was happening again. God how I hated that. Not only was I watching these brave souls die, I could also feel it in the very core of my existence. That's when I noticed Darwin hovering over us protectively. I have to admit if I could have anyone be my human shield I would pick, no questions asked, the mighty Darwin. As we watched more and more agents fall, Raven became more and more scared. I ran a callused hand through her blonde locks in a futile attempt to soothe her.

"Stay here my _ass!_ " Darwin suddenly yelled, clearly fed up with being told to remain on the sidelines. I didn't blame him, I was getting sick of sitting by and doing nothing too. " _Let's go!_ " He then stood up from his crouched position and walked at an increased pace out of the swinging doors. Not seeing any other alternative, we all followed suit. Raven was running rather hysterically towards the end of the hallway that was occupied by a couple of agents who were firing at something else entirely. The base was being completely and utterly ambushed.

" _Get back!_ " An armoured agent yelled at us.

"We can help!" Darwin yelled back. In truth, we could've. But an explosion that occurred somewhere else in the building was sending shock waves back into the hallway we were standing in.

We all quickly turned, all except for Raven who was practically frozen where she stood. I grabbed her hand. "Raven, honey, c'mon we need to go!" She still didn't budge. " _Raven!_ "

Seeing as my words were next to pointless I pulled her back by force and nearly threw her into the break room. To our right, the last of the agents were being killed off. And to our left, a lone agent was trying to stop the tornado. I don't know how he thought he was going to do that but A for effort! The man was picked up by the tornado easily and was chucked through the last intact window to the break room.

He rolled towards Hank, dead. Back in the courtyard there were two agents left. One being moved around like a puppet, the puppeteer being devil man, while the other was trying to shoot the man controlling him while keeping a bullet out of his fellow agent. He pulled the trigger and the agent fell. Devil man disappeared with a puff of smoke and reappeared with another, killing off the last agent, earning one last heartbreaking cry from Raven. I wrapped her closer to me as she soaked my shirt with salty tears.

Out in the field that once housed the golfball structure, a man in a purplish grey suit stepped through while tugging at the lapels of his jacket. Opposite him the devil man also stepped into the room, never sheathing the blades. We all had turned so we were facing the swinging doors, a few more gun shots resonated, signaling the arrival of the last third of the murdering, destructive trio.

"Wait! _Wait!_ Y-you want the mutants? They're right through that door, just leave us normal people alone, we're no threat-" The weasel didn't even get to finished his sentence before being silenced by a sickening crack. I guess I shouldn't blame him for wanting to save himself, but he didn't have to condemn us in the process.

A man in a dark blue suit ensemble with a bright red neckerchief tied neatly around his neck entered our midst. That wasn't the thing that caught my attention. The thing that caught my eye was the blue helmet on his head. He looked absolutely ridiculous. But I didn't let that fool me. He was dangerous. Lethal. Underestimating him was what was going to put me in the situation I'm currently stuck in.

"Where's the telepath?" Helmet man asked his devil colleague.

Brilliant blue eyes scanned our little group. "Not here." Devil man replied with an unmistakable Russian accent.

Knowing he was Russian caused me to have an even lesser opinion of the devil and his scarlet skin. I know one shouldn't judge based on miniscule things, but he'd slaughtered just north of fifty agents. My assumptions that he was no good seemed to be perfectly on point. Plus, it was the Cold War. I had been brainwashed to hate Russians.

Helmet man smirked. "Too bad. At least I can take this silly thing off." At least he knew he looked stupid. The first step to recovery was admittance. He then removed his helmet and handed it to the hot guy in the purplish grey. "Good evening, my name is Sebastian Shaw." He continued. "And I am _not_ here to hurt you."

Somehow I doubted that to be entirely true.

"FREEZE!" Someone screamed from the courtyard. Oh guy, why couldn't you have stayed down? Pull a opossum and play dead? Ugh, still, there he stood with his weapon locked and loaded, poised and ready to shoot. The three men in suits didn't seem too alarmed. I wouldn't either with their genetic arsenal.

"Azazel?" Shaw implied towards his devil friend. Guess his name wasn't Satan or Beelzebub. Azazel vanished and the reappeared behind the sole survivor before slitting his throat without even breaking a sweat. I don't think he even blinked. He then returned to his spot in front of the window with a sadistic smirk on his face. Those were the types of people who scared me the most. The kinds of people who could take a life and not even bat an eye.

Shaw smiled now that there weren't any humans left in the viscinity. "Friends, there's a revolution coming when mankind discovers who we are and _what we can do._ Each of us will have a choice: to be enslaved... or to rise up to rule. Choose freely but know if you are not with us then by definition you are _against_ us. So, you can stay and fight for the people who _hate_ and _fear_ you, or you can join me and live like kings." He paused his monologue mid stream to look meaningfully into Angel's eyes. "And queens."

I never really got along with Angel like I did Raven but I didn't want to see her go. My wishes didn't seem to matter as Shaw outstretched his hand towards my fellow mutant and she reached for it. With an accomplished smirk on his face, Shaw the Bastard led her towards Azazel.

"Angel?" Raven asked with a doubtful tone.

"You kidding me?" Sean said with his southern drawl.

Angel turned back towards us. "Come on. We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of." She gazed into nearly each of our eyes, desperately hoping that one of us would join her.

"We don't belong with him either." I commented quietly. But by the look on her face I'm sure she heard me.

As Shaw turned her away, Darwin reached for her. They had grown close during the time they had spent at the base. Maybe I should've tried to get to know her better. Perhaps she would've stayed. Oh well, what's done is done. There are many things I wished to change about that day. But, sadly, it was too late to fret about that now.

But Raven wasn't having any of this. She tugged on my sleeve to grab my attention. "We have to do something." She whispered in my ear. Yeah, we did, hell I'd gladly lead an armada to strike him down and beg her to come back to us! But I'm not a commander nor was I in any other position to take on Shaw. What could a bunch of kids like us do? I watched Azazel and the very attractive silent man follow their leader out into the courtyard trying to think of a way to best a teleporter, a dude who can conjure cyclones from nowhere, and a old fart who wore silly headgear. I'm sure a swift kick to the face could deal with the old guy. Sadly I didn't know it then, but wind beats lightning every time.

That's when Darwin turned towards me and Alex. He pulled us away from the others and we huddled together. "Okay. We're going to get Angel back. Max, you'll attack first, fry the bastards up like 4th of July barbecue. Then Alex, blast 'em sky high. I'll be protecting Angel so don't be afraid to go all out." He whispered urgently.

Alex went all bug-eyed. "Like hell! I'd kill you!"

"I probably would too dude... most everything conducts electricity." I agreed morosely.

Darwin shoved Alex, Alex shoved back. And everyone knows that that's guy code for 'yes, we're doing this'.

"Stop. I'm coming with you." Darwin called out to the murderers, backing away from Alex and myself. They turned to look at him. Shaw even smiled as Darwin began to walk out into the courtyard. I took that as a signal to start charging electricity behind my back. The more I got juiced up the better our chances would be.

Shaw stepped forwards. "Good choice. So, tell me about your mutation."

We began to walk across the room. I was trying to gauge the best way to approach this but the others were just curious I'm sure. "I adapt to survive, so I guess I'm coming with you." Darwin said, cool as a cucumber. And that was a bad ass line. If this wasn't a life or death situation I would've applauded my friend. But that wasn't the time or place. Sadly, I would never have the time after that moment.

"I like that." Shaw nodded, motioning for him to stand next to Angel. He obliged, taking his friends hand in his; he puffed out his chest.

He lowered Alex and I a look. "Max, Alex!" He said loudly, signaling us to spring into action.

"Get down!" Alex yelled as I unleashed a lightning strike at the trio. I didn't even check to see that everyone else had obeyed Alex. My powers were much more controlled than Alex's, admittedly, so Darwin didn't need to adapt just quite yet and the others should've been just fine. I didn't look to gauge how well Alex did his job. I had fallen to the floor in exhaustion. My mutation really sucked in the heat of battle back them. But in my present state I was still able to hear Shaw chuckle, how was he not dead?

"Protecting your fellow mutants? Feels good." He exhaled slightly. I looked up when I felt the energy pouring out of the sadistic villain. By the look on his face I could tell what he was planning. I wasn't going to take that lying down. I lifted my hand up towards him and began withdrawing the energy I forced at him. He wasn't going to harm anyone else while I was still alive and kicking!

He looked into my eyes. I knew what he was going to do next. And even though I did, I didn't stop.

"Oh! You want your energy back? _Take it_." Shaw threatened as he sent my power back at me.

Had it been the blast I sent at him I would've been fine. But... it was magnified exponentially. I had never held that amount of energy within me before. I was thrown across the room from the force of it, my back slamming into the pinball machine and sending even more pain through me until I... I couldn't feel anything... my body was completely unresponsive. My eyes stared wide at the popcorn ceiling above me, I couldn't move my body. My mouth was open wide and there was the distinct sound of me gasping for air and groaning in agony.

First, I tried letting the energy go but that would kill everyone around me. I could feel it, so I let that idea go. Next I realized that the only thing I could do was watch. Watch as I lost a friend. I looked to Alex. Then to Darwin. Darwin was dying, I could feel that too. Later I would learn that Shaw had practically shoved Alex's condensed energy down the throat of my tougher than steel friend. But now, I was dying inside and out. Once Darwin exploded into millions of pieces. I allowed myself to slip into unconsciousness, knowing damn well I couldn't do anything more than that. As I drifted I felt people trying to touch me, I heard their voices desperate to help and wrought with despair. I heard their pained gasps when they touched my skin. Too bad my body was so electrified that no one could possibly hope to help me. A lingering touch could quite possibly stop their hearts where they stood. Tears trailed down the side of my face until everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** **TRIGGER WARNING, EXCESSIVE BLOOD. READ CAUTIOUSLY.**

* * *

**Perfect Synergy**

" _It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow."_ \- Voltaire

* * *

It was so dark. When I opened my eyes I couldn't- I couldn't see a thing. Wetness streaked my face and my chest spasmed continuously. It felt as if I was in a timeless void. I couldn't explain it, but it was as if- as if every single cell within me was being simultaneously ripped apart, coming together again, only to be forcibly separated once more. My body ached for oxygen yet each time I opened my mouth to take a breath I could only let out a choked sob. The pain was too much. I-I couldn't even raise my hand to grasp my chest. What does one do in this sort of situation? What can you _possibly_ do when you can feel your entire existence fading out and you can't even muster more than a bloody cough to cry out for help? I couldn't think of anything...

As I sat there with saliva, blood, and tears soaking my hair and coating the back of my neck, I was able to move my fingers and hands just enough to examine my broken body to see where the damage lie. My fingers dusted over my chest. It felt like there was a gaping hole where my heart should be that was causing an eery numbness to creep across me from shoulder to shoulder. Upon moving my other hand I realized- there was something- something sticking out of my arm. I couldn't fathom what it could be, I just knew that it had to come out. It didn't belong there. I-I had to get it out!

With every ounce of strength I had in my decrepit I managed to reach my other arm across my midsection. Desperate to get it out, my fingers fumbled hopelessly as they searched for the foreign object. Finally, I found it. It was attached to the crease of my elbow and I managed to wrap two fingers around it. I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Everything would be so much better after I got that thing out of me. Quickly and abruptly I pulled as hard as I could on the intrusion and tossed it away from me. I was about to relax when something uncomfortably warm started pouring from my arm. I wish I could just see it so I could fix it! I just- I wanted it all to stop!

I-It was blood. That's when I realized it. Blood was pooling underneath me as it spurted out of my arm in time to the beat of my heart. I felt myself panicking- I-I had to get away from it! I didn't want it touching me! I tried to put as much distance between me at the sickly warm liquid. With my hand planted firmly against whatever was beneath me I pushed off with as much force as I could muster. Not knowing that I had been placed on an examination table I nearly panicked as I began to fall to the floor. I reached out in fear and managed to grab onto something but it quickly wheeled away from my reach sending me face first in the cold hard floor. And just as I touched it I felt the blood started to pool beneath me again. Rolling onto my back I couldn't help but cry quietly to myself. There was no one in the world that could help me. Upon realizing that my sobs grew louder and louder until I was full out screaming in agony and despair.

In the distance I thought- I thought I heard something. Muffled cries, but not quite like mine. No... they belonged to someone else and they were... scared...

"Maxine! _Maxine? MAXINE!_ "

Max... I found myself giggling a little hysterically at the sound of my own name and my tears started falling faster. I don't know if I was happy or if the pain had just become so unbearable my brain just decided to switch off so it didn't have to endure anymore.

"Maxine? Oh God... they told me that you weren't recovering from your endeavor but I never imagined..." The voice died out after that, afraid to speak. From the distinct British accent I knew Charles had returned from his trip to Russia _._ He had lifted my head gently into his lap. Slightly delirious I started to laugh which only resulted in me coughing up more blood onto myself.

I opened my mouth in an attempt to say something, anything. Just more coughing.

A hand dusted over my wet cheek affectionately. "Don't try to speak. You've been through quite the ordeal... Hank! Get something to stop the bleeding!" He yelled back to something else who seemed to be shuffling around in the background. They quickly rushed forward and pressed something fluffy against my oozing arm.

"I-I can't see!" I practically pled, despite not asking for anything. I just wanted something to make me feel less helpless!

"It's temporary my dear, I promise. You'll be fine! Absolutely... fine..." He drifted off once more.

His words, they caused me to ache even more. Something I didn't think possible. I knew there was something wrong with me. Never in all my life have I ever felt anything similar to the pure feeling of utter despair that I felt that day.

"Maxine, i-if you can, I need you to dispel the energy you have stored inside of you." Charles continued to soothe me while someone still put pressure on my arm.

I-I couldn't be charged. It wasn't possible. Whenever I was charged I felt this rush of energy pulsing through me, a perpetual high. One of the greatest feelings I've ever experienced. Like anything was possible. Bleeding out on the floor it just felt like I was rotting. Like every part of me was wasting away. In compliance to Charles's words I tried to release whatever energy was inside of me. Without anything being expelled my body started to convulse at the futile attempt. I believe I was having a seizure. I couldn't control a single part of me and more blood and saliva bubbled out of my mouth.

"My God..." Charles muttered. "Why the hell did you leave her alone?!" He screamed at whoever was tending to my wounds. I think- I think he said it was Hank.

"She was practically comatose I-I thought she would be fine on her own..." He muttered quietly. That was definitely Hank.

"Does she look _fine_?" The other person harshly. It wasn't Alex or Sean, meaning it could only be Erik. Once I could finally see again I confirmed my previous assumptions. Charles, Hank, and Erik surrounded me worryingly... protectively. And to thank them all I could do was spit up more blood.

A hand brushed through my hair calmly. I looked at the hand, it was Charles wearing a rubber glove to protect him. I cracked a very weak smile. "What's happening to me...?" I croaked. I was surprised I was able to even make a sound. It felt like my words had scrapped out the inside of my throat as they were formed.

His hand moved to my cheek. "Your powers are running rampant, it's causing you to experience a heart attack, only it's non-stop. I don't think your body can handle much more of it, it's not... your body isn't recuperating in the slightest." He tried to sound soothing. But I wasn't too out of it to here the real emotion behind his words. My breathing became even more labored than before, something I didn't think physically possible at the time, I felt my heart pounding, I felt it practically bruising my sternum, my hands started shaking, and a cold sweat covered my body.

Was I going to die?

"Not while we're still here." Charles continued to try to relax me to no avail. My body was too far gone by that point. I tried desperately to let go of the energy that was teething at the seams of my very existence. It was as if a child had found a frayed edge of a blanket and started to pull. They just kept pulling and pulling and eventually the blanket would be nothing but a long piece of thread. That would be me. I felt my insides unraveling. But what could I possibly do? I hated not being in control. It was possibly the worst feeling I've ever felt.

"I'd get back..." I gasped. Apparently Charles heard me since he began to usher Hank and Erik away from my pathetic excuse for a body. That's when I let everything go. I forced the energy out of me, something I've never had to do before. In the past my powers were like a muscle, the more I worked them the more I could utilize them, now my powers were a steel cage closing in around me at an alarmingly fast rate.

Once all of the energy was out I was surrounded by darkness. My skin always glowed a little so I was never completely in the dark. I reached out for someone, anyone. Someone approached me, in the dark it looked like Erik; I couldn't be sure.

"Her heart is still racing." He said to whoever was still in the room with two fingers pressed to my jugular. Why was my heart being so out of control! I let go of the energy so I should've been feeling tired by then. But I wasn't. I felt more energized than ever. The shakes ceased, the pain left me, I felt like a brand new Max! And I could finally move again freely. I clenched and unclenched my fingers, I felt in control once more. Since I felt some energy was still left in me I nonchalantly sent some into the light fixtures. Dearly, I hoped that I didn't fry the circuits. I was in luck! The circuits retained the charge and lit up the room. I sat up, that's when I noticed Charles giving me the most frightful expression I had ever seen.

I arched an eyebrow at him. "What's up, doc?" I asked, realizing my arm wasn't bleeding anymore. Yikes that was a lot of semi-wet blood. I was practically drowning in it and that couldn't exactly be sanitary.

Charles's blue eyes were full of pain when I looked back into them. "I'm afraid that my initial hypothesis was correct..."

Okay, what was he talking about now. "Care to share?" I asked.

"I don't want to say anything until we run some tests. You are not to leave this room, understood?" He said rather seriously. I looked to Erik and Hank who wore expressions of pain and worry. I felt fine. After feeling like I was trapped for the past however long I felt perfectly fine! There was nothing to worry about... right? I... was I seriously not going to be okay?


	10. Chapter 10

**Perfect Synergy**

" _Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them_." – Henry Ford

* * *

_Inhale, exhale. Don't freak out Max._

After Charles announced that his cryptic hypothesis was correct, he summoned a CIA doctor that wasn't tending to the few survivors from Shaw's attack to assess my condition. I underwent a few stress tests, running on a treadmill, lifting weights, he checked my lung health, he took my blood pressure, examined my vitals, my hearing, my sight, he essentially gave me a very lengthy physical. But on top of all of that he drew a vial of blood, cut out a piece of skin on the back of my neck and began looking at both things under a microscope. Then he even went so far as to take a sample of my spinal fluid. It wasn't pleasant, being poked and prodded, but I dealt with it.

I just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier. That utter feeling like I was going to die and not being able to do anything about it. God, the look on Charles's face as he desperately tried to help me to the best of his ability, it still haunted me. The panic, the hopelessness, the _fear_. It was too much. I tried to shake the image from my head but even the slightest movement caused a raging headache to course through me. Side effects of the spinal tap. I couldn't move without causing myself great pain. I couldn't do anything but lie on the cot Erik brought in for me. A very sweet gesture, coming from him. I smiled a little, actually. Unconsciously I began twirling the ends of my hair, maybe a last ditch effort to distract myself.

"When can I leave?" I asked quietly, tightening my knees to my chest.

The doctor didn't answer me at first, but he paused slightly like he wanted to give me a reply. "Soon, hopefully."

The smallest bit of human interaction actually made me feel loads better. I'm pretty sure he'd been given orders not to interact with me, so I appreciated what little he offered me. Still, he moved over to a microscope and adjusted the settings while looking through it. After zooming in and out, adjusting the stage, he scribbled something down swiftly, then went over to a machine he'd been fidgeting with since I laid down on that table.

I really wished that they weren't making such a big deal about this whole deal. It was making me nervous and a nervous electrokinetic like me was _not_ a good idea. I just had an overdrive, plain and simple. It's happened before, not nearly on the same scale but the motion still stood. I recovered in a couple of hours and everything was peachy keen. I could understand that they've never seen me do anything like that before, but I tried desperately to reassure them that I would be fine. Obviously they didn't listen or I wouldn't've been held hostage for more than twelve hours.

Without even realizing it, I noticed that electricity was channeling through me. That never happened before. I always had to physically will it to happen, not counting the usual static that just surrounds me at all times. It didn't take long for the charge to take root in my system; actually, it took no time at all. I was overflowing with power and I didn't even notice. _What the hell is this?_ I asked myself before I heard an alarm going off.

The machines I was hooked up to started going haywire. They were beeping like mad, trying to compensate for whatever sort of data I was producing. One of them actually died out while the other just about blew up in smoke. The doctor quickly stopped examining whatever he was looking at and tended to the machines. His eyes widened and he started checking my vitals to see if the data was correct.

He grabbed a stethoscope and placed the doodad at the end against my chest. Didn't know it was physically possible, but his eyes got wider again. He then placed two fingers on my wrist to double check what the machines and his stethoscope were already telling him. This time, his eyes didn't widen, they saddened. His gaze was directed towards the ground before heading towards a phone anchored on a wall far away from me. Punching in the number of whoever he wanted to speak to, I couldn't hear anything he said. He spoke quietly, too quietly for me to hear anything. But by the look on his face, I knew the news wasn't good.

Just as he hung up, the machine he'd been working on before started beeping horrendously as it spat out something. He returned to it, looking at the long sheet of paper as it was printed off. I could see a bit of it from where I was and if I didn't know better I'd say that was- a piece of paper. I don't understand science stuff very well. Or any other sort of stuff you learn in school. But from what he'd told me before all of the testing went underway, it was a record of my DNA.

Suddenly, I heard the door behind me burst open. I wanted to look to see who'd joined the party but I still couldn't move from my fetal position atop of the cot. Charles quickly came into view though so no need for me to risk massive headaches. He'd gone over to speak to the CIA doctor and the both looked at the piece of paper that was just spat out as well as four other papers with similar markings on them. Well, not similar, they were all very different from each other but there were tons of black marks on them. Charles furrowed his eyebrows as Doc whispered in his ear. Something didn't feel right. They were too downtrodden for my tastes. Only solidifying my feelings of dread.

Little did I know that they were going to tell me why I would probably die within the next year.

Charles dismissed the doctor and got down so he was eye level with me. "Maxine, I'm not sure how to tell you this..."

"I know my lung health ain't too great, I've been smoking for a couple of years now." I tried to joke to lighten the mood, but Charles's didn't seem amused. Or, he didn't seem to possess the capacity at the time to be amused.

"Please." He begged quietly. "This is hard enough to tell you as it is."

I nodded solemnly, knowing that the news was even worse than I initially thought.

"My dear," he started, "when I found you in Maine it wasn't because I found you like the others. I used a machine to locate mutants based on the slightest difference in our brain waves to average humans. That's how I found Angel, Alex, Sean, Darwin, but I didn't sense any mutants anywhere near where you lived. That, I was certain. When I was roaming around Virginia after I got Alex I heard a family talk about one of the children's friends who lived in Maine and who could control electricity. I thought it strange so I decided to go and have a look. I didn't think you were actually a mutant at first, just some con artist, a street act perhaps. But when you started building up that energy in the courtyard I knew that you were the real deal- or, at least half the real deal. It's terrible- Lord, I should've seen it from the start.

"I scanned your mind several times and saw that your brain waves were purely human. I knew- I _knew_ you weren't born this way. You are a human Maxine, a human exposed to radiation." He closed his mouth to cough. "I'm not just saying this without any proof. I checked your family history as well, it's rare for there to be six siblings and only one exhibits mutant powers and none of the others do. And these tests we've been doing show us that there is a mutated gene that Raven, Erik, Hank, and myself share but you do not, I'm going to bet that that's the gene that granted us our powers."

I wasn't listening to him. I couldn't even hear him anymore. My mind was going a mile a minute. Trying to process everything that Charles told me. I just- I couldn't believe it. I'm not a mutant. It didn't sound natural in my head. I was different. I knew that much, but saying I'm not a mutant was like exiling me. I'm not a mutant, I'm just a human and a cheap parlor trick. Without even realizing it, I started to cry.

"Please, calm down, Maxine." He asked kindly, but when I didn't listen his tone grew harsh. "You're going to accelerate the process if you don't relax!"

With his hand squeezing mine, I inhaled and exhaled several times. Desperately trying to calm myself down. I looked up, noticing the flickering of the lights that was more than likely my doing. I shook my head, ignoring the headache and trying to distract myself.

That's when what Charles said really registered. "What process?"

He swallowed, hesitant and unwilling. "After the incident with Shaw your body has been producing an unsafe amount of electricity. Your body didn't evolve to take this amount of abuse, like how no matter how hard Sean screams, it doesn't affect himself, same with Alex, he isn't harmed by his own energy. But you- you're different. Your body can't differentiate between you, and the electricity. Every molecule, fiber, protein, enzyme, atom, nucleus, every part of you is slowly turning into the substance you control so effortlessly. I feel like you've been like this all your life, but only now is it really effecting you."

I tried to gulp down the lump in my throat. "And what does that mean for me?"

"Your body is - in short - deteriorating." He said bluntly, still hesitant in his appearance. "At the rate your molecules are morphing, I'd say you have, at most, a year. And that's if you don't use your powers. But that will be the case. Now, I've arranged for a car to take you home to your parents and the rest of your family. The car will be here shortly so if you want to go pack your things I'm sure-"

"No." I interrupted, my face stern and unwavering.

I made a promise to Charles. To my country. My brothers all put their lives on the line, Lucas, Devin, Collin, Cole, even my father. The Dugan boys had served the red white and blue flag since they each turned eighteen, now it was my turn. I couldn't enlist, being that I'm a girl. That just meant I would do anything for my country. Do everything in my power to make sure our prosperous nation would not fall to an sociopathic, narcissistic, egotistical, selfish, mother fucking, jack ass, son of a bitch, like Sebastian Shaw. My one true hero, Captain Rogers, did just that in the face of the Nazis. I could take out a guy in a helmet. I was capable of that much.

"I'm sorry, Max. It's already been arranged." He tried to sway me, resting a hand on my shoulder.

"Tell them to fuck off." I growled, shrugging off his gesture and sitting up. "I swore to protect this country in any way I could. A quiet promise I made when I was a kid and I intend to keep it! No matter what you say to me I'm going to be on the front line and ripping Shaw in half if I have to! So don't even try to change my mind. I'd rather jump put my head on the chopping block before I let that asshole go free. You don't get to kill people without any consequences. And he has to pay a price."

In one fell swoop I detached the lubes and machines from my arm and I walked out of the room, while trying to ignore a roaring headache. So that's why you're not supposed to move after getting a spinal tap.

I turned back to Charles as my hand pressed against the door, softening a bit knowing he was only looking out of my best interests. "Just don't tell anyone, 'kay?"

He shook his head as if dissipating a dark cloud, but he smiled. "I won't, I swear. But only if you promise to give up smoking."

My jaw dropped. _Bastard._


End file.
